


Like Breathing

by forestfairy72



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, But don't we all?, Do people still write coffee shop aus?, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Friends to Lovers, Multi, No graphic depiction of abuse, Past Abuse, because i'm gonna!, i suck at summaries, the gang are in their 20s
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-08-20 23:34:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20236216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forestfairy72/pseuds/forestfairy72
Summary: Annabeth Chase has been through a lot. After a series of events, she ran away to live at her friend Thalia's while she begins to try and heal. Having turned her by the numbers life upside down she has planted herself at a crossroads. Feeling lost and unsure of what to do next she gets a job at a small café where she meets a certain green eyed lifeguard who takes her by surprise. Could she have found just the person to help her learn to trust again?





	1. A Fresh Start

Annabeth could barely think over the music. The reggae baseline was pounding at what most would consider an inappropriate volume for a small café. The bored-looking barista clearly did not fit into this category. She had picked the venue for Piper’s benefit. A quick google search for vegan-friendly coffee shops had led her here, to the Cerulean Café, even though Piper was veggie rather than vegan. It was a not what she had expected; faux-rustic or pretentious, instead it had a cute homey feel. Every table had a few mis-matched chairs around it, differing materials but in the same colour story which her inner designer approved of. Annabeth’s table was next to the window, looking out onto a window box full of brightly coloured plants.

The barista glared at her from behind the counter, clearly annoyed that she was yet to order despite having been sat at her table for nearly fifteen minutes. It probably didn’t help that she had cleared some dirty plates off the table so she could sit down since there hadn’t been a vacant table. His gaze caused her face to heat up slightly. Annabeth rationalised that the shop managers hadn’t used the space effectively, if she had been the one designing the layout there could be another three tables, none of which would be blocking the fire exit, unlike the current set up.

Impatiently, Annabeth ran her fingers through her hair. Piper was always late. She didn’t know why she expected today to be any different. Just like that Piper appeared at the door, a whirlwind of denim, feathers and bags. She scanned the room the look for Annabeth and rushed over as soon as she spotted her.

“Ahhhhhh! So good to see you!” Piper squeezed as if to make up for four months of missed hugs. Annabeth beamed as she hugged back, her frustration dissipating more with every second she was back with her friend.  
  
“Right back atcha McLean. Can I get you a coffee?”  
  
“Don’t worry about it.” Piper began to rifle through her many bags for her wallet.  
  
“Nah, I insist. It’s the least I can do.” Annabeth’s smile faltered for just a moment but luckily Piper didn’t notice.  
  
“Bullshit.” Piper scoffed, “But I will treat you next time.”  
  
“Flat white with 2 sugars?” Annabeth asked.  
  
“A woman after my own heart!” Piper fake swooned.

Annabeth approached the counter with the cheeriest grin she could muster, ready to face the scowling Rasta hat wearing barista. The guy clocked her and instantly plastered his own smile on.  
“Hi there! Can I get a flat white and an Americano please?” She asked, struck by how easily the guy switched into customer service mode. Maybe he was just happy that she was actually buying something. The café was pretty full still, so it wasn’t like he didn’t have anything to do.  
“Absolutely! Can I interest you in anything else? One of our home-baked cakes perhaps?”  
  
“Ooh… What would you recommend?”  
  
“Well, I’m partial to the banana bread.”  
  
“Sounds great! I’ll take one of those and a lemon drizzle please.” Annabeth handed over the money and turned to look back at her friend. Piper was casually scrolling through her phone while she was waiting. Every once in a while she would click on something of laugh quietly to herself. Her friend’s presence made Annabeth feel lighter already.  
  
She thanked the barista as he placed her many dishes on to a tray and then carried them over to the table.  
“You are a jewel, thanks.” Piper smiled as she unloaded her coffee from the tray. Annabeth halved the two cakes and swapped over plates so they each had a part of both treats. “How cute is this place? I can’t believe I have never come here before! Loving the blue theme.” She indicated to the cups, saucers and plates which were also mismatched all in similar shades of blue.

“Yeah, it’s really adorable. Kind of reminds me of that place we went to in Soho when you came to visit me at school.”

“Yes! Oh my god that place did the best pancakes! Do you think it’s too late for me to order pancakes?”

Annabeth just laughed at her friend and agreed it was too late for pancakes. The pair began some small talk as they ate and drank – how Annabeth’s journey had been, how things were going with Piper’s PR internship, how Jason was adjusting to his sister Thalia going on the road.

“It was so sweet of Thalia to let me stay in her room while she is on tour. I really appreciate it.”

“Babe, you know she would’ve killed me and Jason both had we not done everything we could to get you here.”

Annabeth could believe it. She had met Thalia nearly fifteen years ago at summer camp and the pair had somehow managed to remain friends after all this time. They were sisters in all but blood, that curtesy extending to Jason, Thalia’s younger brother. In the years since becoming Piper’s boyfriend that had only doubled down. When Annabeth had first called Thalia to say there had been a… change in her living situation… she had to all but beg her friend not to cancel the rest of her band’s tour dates and come back east. 

“Well I just don’t want to seem ungrateful. Having somewhere to stay was the first big step. The next of course is finding a job. Do you know of anything going?”

“What kind of thing are you looking for? Are you thinking of going for something design-y like an internship or…?”

“No. I need something that is going to pay bills. I cannot afford an internship right now.” Well that was certainly part of the reason. Piper noticed Annabeth twitch slightly at the mention of design.

“I mean I saw a sign in the window here saying they are looking for a barista/waitress. What about that?” Piper walked over to the notice board and returned with the flyer. “It says to ask for Grover at the desk. You could be a waitress!” Annabeth paused for a moment while she pondered this. She knew very well how to put on a customer service persona from her time in retail helping to fund her school experience.

“I mean the worst thing they can do is say no. I’ll go ask the guy up there.” Annabeth rose from her seat, drank the final gulp of her coffee and approached the rather grumpy looking man at the till.

“Hi, may I speak to Grover please?” She smiled as brightly as she could as she said it. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror lining the wall behind him, realised that she looked a bit demonic so tried to tone it down.

“You are already.” Grover tensed up at this. “Is everything okay with your food and coffee?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Annabeth rushed. “I was wanting to ask for an application.” He physically relaxed at her response, gave her a big grin and pulled out a form from behind the till. Clearly he had expected to have an ‘I want to speak to the manager’ conversation.

“There you go, the boss mentioned there have been a couple of applicants so interviews will be Friday. It’s pretty straightforward – if you think you have any experience which is going to be particularly helpful make sure you make it stand out. Good luck!” Grover smiled, Annabeth returned to her table, feeling ever so slightly guilty for thinking of the guy as grumpy when he had been incredibly pleasant. She shot Piper a thumbs up as she headed back to the table.

The pair of them grabbed their things and left the café, thanking Grover as they left.

\- - - 

The walk to the apartment did not take long, though it would have been much shorter had they not each been pulling a large suitcase topped with Piper's many bags, filled with flyers for some event she was promoting through work. While it was a pain in the neck in the short term, Annabeth couldn’t help but feel conflicted. She was getting a fresh start, but it was sad to think that her whole life was neatly packed into these two cases.

Dalinver Bay was a small coastal town about an hour outside of Manhattan. Ideally Annabeth would have wanted to go west and join Thalia, but she would only have been a distraction. Escaping her woes by partying across California sounded much too self-destructive and she was pretty sure she maxed out her quota for self-destructive behaviours this decade. Besides it was incredibly kind for Piper to let her stay

“Well here we are!” Piper sang, pulling out her set of keys and opening the front door.

“Damn. You are living large Piper!” Annabeth exclaimed as she pulled he case into the large foyer.

“You say that every time you come here.”

“Yeah, that’s ‘cause it is still true every time I come here!”

Annabeth was no stranger to money. She had attended private school, her mother was a regular in the Upper East Side social circle but there was money and then there was _money. _It was Piper’s turn to blush now. She didn’t like to advertise it but as the child of one of Hollywood’s most sought after action stars and the head of a fashion empire she was obviously very well off.

The apartment was three bedroomed, each being en suite, and had several other rooms spread across two floors including a guest bathroom, kitchen, lounge, gaming room and a room nicknamed the library which was full of books ranging from rare classics to summer reading fodder. The whole interior had a chic, minimalist vibe and had obviously been decorated by someone who had created many a show home. But there were still flavours of Thalia and Piper throughout the house, be it Piper’s artifacts from her father’s side or rock memorabilia Thalia had scattered around the place, including the band’s debut album’s platinum record hanging in the foyer so it would be the first thing any guest would see.

Between the two of them they took two trips to hoist the heavy suitcases up the spiral staircase to Thalia’s room. After having plonked it on the floor they headed into the lounge. There was an L shaped sofa and a love seat both facing the large tv mounted on the wall. Each of the sank down onto the black leather sofa and let out a sigh. The lifting had been heavier than expected.

“So…” Piper began then paused. “Do you want to watch tv?”

“Sure.” They stuck on some mind numbing trash and sat curled up on the sofa for a long time. The silence between them was a comfortable one but Annabeth couldn’t help but think that hadn’t been the question Piper wanted to ask. She was waiting for the full story. Things must have seemed so good when Piper had visited back in February. SO why had Annabeth had called hysterically crying three days ago? Why she was taking a leave of absence from school? Why she did pale at every mention of her family? Why she had left… everything?

But she couldn’t answer.

Not yet.

So instead she snuggled in closer to her friend and before she knew it she dozed off. Ot was the best sleep she’d had in a year.

\- - -

By the time Friday had rolled around Annabeth had applied for seven waitressing jobs, three cleaning positions, four admin assistant posts, and even one of those advertisement jobs where you have to throw a massive plaque around telling customers where to go to buy over priced sports equipment. But hey, beggers can't be choosers. As she walked the now familiar route from Thalia's to the Cerulean Cafe her heart was jack hammering. She had been in two days ago to drop off her application and make use of their complementary wifi to send off her many applications. The walk should only have been twenty minutes but she had to stop every so often and take in a deep breath to calm herself down. It wasn't her first job interview. Annabeth had been employed every summer since she was sixteen. Bsck then however she had always had a safety net. Now she had to rely on herself. Asking for help from her friends would be mortifying, especially after everything they were already doing for her and hell would freeze over before she turned to either of her parents for help. 

She was stood outside the door. All that was left to do was go in, get through the interview telling as few lies as possible and get out. She pushed the door and stepped inside, feeling the calm atmosphere of the room wash over her. It was amazing seeing the difference between the place first thing in the morning when it was empty as opposed to the bustling experience she had shared with Piper. 

"Hello?" She called out when she realised the room was completely empty. "Is someone there?"  
  
"Miss Ramírez-Arellano?" Came a woman's voice from the kitchen area. How her heart beat faster. She regretted it the second she had handed in the application. But what else was a girl to do? She didn't want to risk being tracked down so she couldn't use her own name. Reyna was going to be on tour with Thalia for the next two months anyway so what she didn't know couldn't hurt her. Now that she was faced with the repercussions of such an obvious lie she realised just how stupid she had been. First of all, she was white. Secondly - 

"Yes." Annabeth finally called back before her thoughts could derail her. She had made the bed, now she had to lie in it. The woman came round to shake her hand. Annabeth would have placed her in her late forties, but something about her kind smile made her appear younger. If it weren't for the grey streaks in her otherwise brown hair she could pass for younger still. 

"I'm Sally Jackson. Walcome to the Cerulean Café!" She gestured to the room around them. It was obviously in the midst of being set up for the day since she had been asked to come in before the place officially opened for the interview to take place. "Shall we take a seat?" Annabeth nodded and followed her to a table near the kitchen so Sally could keep an ear out for the timer to tell her the scones were ready.

“So, I saw on your application that you have worked in customer service. Did you have waitressing experience through this post Miss Ramírez-Arellano?” Sally Jackson asked Annabeth. It was a simple question so Annabeth should have been able to answer with the simple obvious answer but the name game was already throwing her. 

“Not really, but I am a fast learner Mrs Jackson.” Annabeth smiled. “I have been practising at home and can carry three plates at once. I am dyslexic so I know that I’m going to have to learn the menu by heart which I can happily do, I have a great memory-“ Annabeth felt her cheeks redden. Now she was bumbling like an idiot, plus she was pretty sure she was sweating through her shirt.

“That’s okay, the thing I care about most is that you are friendly and welcoming to the customers. Please call me Sally, rather than Mrs Jackson. Also, can I call you Reyna? I am not fond of too much formality, if you can’t tell by the place” Sally laughed and Annabeth nodded. “We change the specials every day but the rest of the menu is seasonal, so it only changes once in a while. How comfortable are you with technology? The till is basically an iPad – my son set it up because I’m useless at that kind of thing. He is also dyslexic so it is on a pink background.”

“I can work with that! The black on pink helps everything stay in the right place.”

“That’s what he says!” Sally sighed slightly and continued reading down the application form sat between them. “So, what is it that has taken you out to the Bay?”

“I- uh” The real answer would be too long and painful. Annabeth had expected to be asked it but not quite so soon. She still hadn’t really figured it out yet herself so was surprised when the words started flooding out. “I’m uh, taking a little break from my studies” that was true “to pursue a love of surfing!” That was not. “Yeah, I just can’t get enough of the waves! So I uh, thought a place like this would be ideal…” Annabeth trailed off and suddenly felt compelled to look anywhere in the room but at Sally Jackson’s face.

The woman pursed her lips and looked Annabeth up and down, considering her carefully.

“Okay.” She straightened up a little and locked on to Annabeth’s eyes. “I am going to ask you five questions. I want you to answer them honestly, and the job is yours. After that I won’t ask any more. Are we clear?”

Annabeth felt her heartrate quicken, her nerves coming back all at once. “Yes.”

“What is your name?”

“Rey-“

“I said honestly.” Sally’s face did not change at all. “I don’t care what we put on your name badge, and I’m sure you’ve got your reasons for giving a fake name but if we are going to work together, I need honesty.”

“It’s Annabeth, Annabeth Chase.”

“Okay Annabeth. Whatever you are running from - is it drugs? If it is drugs here is where our conversation ends I'm afraid.”

“God no!” Annabeth spluttered. “I can assure you I have no interest in drugs.”

“Good. Will whatever it is keep you from being able to work?”

“Not at all.”

“Is it going to impact my business or my family?”

“No.”

“Can you start Monday?”

Annabeth stared at her, trying to work out if Sally was joking or not. “Yes.”

“Perfect” She clapped her hands together. “Grover is going to be delighted, he’s been desperate for some more wait staff to keep things going smoothly. Come on and I’ll give you the tour.”

“That’s it? You don’t want to know anything else?”

“That’s it.” Sally smiled softly. “This café was built on trust. I trust my employees and they trust me. If I were to force you to tell me every decision or experience that has led you here, you would never trust me and we wouldn’t be able to work together. The most important thing to us here at Cerulean Café is family – we are all one big family. The job is yours if you want it. Under the condition that you never lie to me again.”

“I promise, Sally.” They were three simple words, but the weight Annabeth put behind them felt like a vow, one that she would not break.

“So, come on then.” She rose to her feet and Annabeth followed suit.

The tour was very straightforward. She had already seen the shop floor which Sally now explained the fairly straightforward numbering system for. Annabeth remembered it as if the room was split into quarters and then there was a circle inside of each. Sally informed her that there was no table thirteenfor some superstitious reasons which she managed to not laugh at. Annabeth felt a bit bad for criticising the lay out of the café as Sally explained how it had been arranged for optimal ease for disabled patrons, inspired by her favourite regular who Annabeth was bound to meet soon.

“I’m really looking forward to Monday now!” Sally beamed. “But just a piece of advice. We have a few regulars who are the nosy type. Whatever story you decide you want to tell you better get it straight before you start because they will be asking questions.”

“Okay.” Annabeth nodded.

“And there is no way you are getting around trying to pass yourself off as Reyna Ramírez-Arellano – I’m assuming you are staying with her? She is known in the area so that just wouldn’t go un-noted. Besides, are you going to remember that when we are slammed with customers and you are being called for? It needs to be something a bit closer to home.”

A light bulb went off in Annabeth’s head. The name her step-brothers had called her before they could say her name.

“Abby. Please put it as Abby on the rota.”

“You got it Abby.” Sally added her to the bottom of her shift rota board and walked her to the door. “I need to finish getting set up for opening. You’ll have some training to do on the job, but Grover will get that sorted out for you and you’ll meet most of the team on your first shift. Remember blue top, black bottoms and hair up. See you Monday!”

“Monday!” Annabeth echoed and stepped out of the café and onto the bright street.

She whipped out her phone and began texting Piper to share the good news. She got a job! Things finally were beginning to resemble a fresh start.


	2. One Day at a Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annabeth reunites with an old friend and faces her first day at the Cerulean Cafe where she might just make some new ones!

_Annabeth was huddled in the corner of her East Village apartment. It was dark, the only light coming in from the streetlights outside, which wasn’t much since she lived on the fourth floor._

_She tiptoed through her living room, trying to avoid debris strewn around the room. The shredded paperwork littered the floor, her sofa had been upended, wine stains tore up the walls. The light on the microwave in the kitchenette glared, piercing through the dark of the rest of the room. With each step she took a shallow breath. Her feet ached and somehow each step was getting heavier and heavier. When she looked down, she saw shackles tied around each of her ankles leading back to her bedroom. She stopped in her tracks and studied the room in dismay. _

_It was hard to remember how much she had once loved this place. It had been her haven, the first place she truly considered her home. She felt the heavy chains burn against her ankles. _

_THUNK._

_She felt a weight pull down her left arm._

_THUNK._

_A shackle appeared on her right. _

_She tried to straighten herself up, but the weight was threatening to pull her right to the floor. All she could do was stare at the shards of glass which had once made up her coffee table scattered around the floor. Simultaneously, they levitated so she could read that each was covered in writing. Suddenly they hurtled towards her, each screaming as they did in familiar, harsh voices._

_Useless. Pathetic. No Direction. Failure. Disappointment. Has Been. How Dare You. Weak. Broken. _

_You Need Me Annabeth. _

_I’ll Always Be Here._

Annabeth woke up with a start to Jason’s concerned face hanging above her. She instantly recoiled and tried to catch her breath. He leant back, caught off guard at her reaction and clearly concerned by her heavy breathing.

“Are you okay?” He asked tentatively.

“Yes.” She began to compose herself, eyes darting around the room. Her and Piper must have drifted off on the sofa while watching Bridesmaids. Piper was still sound asleep. “I’m okay. Just having a nightmare. What time is it?”

Jason looked unsure at this but did not push the point further. “One-ish I think? It’s pretty late.”

“You always come here at one in the morning? Piper must get sick of late night booty calls.” She grinned.

“Nah, only when people are squatting in my sister’s bedroom. Need to keep the riffraff out!”

“I’ll show you riffraff.” Annabeth snarked but she pushed off her blanket and jumped up to give him a big hug. “How’ve you been Sparky? I’ve missed you!” Jason hugged back and laughed. “How was the training retreat?”

“You know me, lotta work, some degree of play. We beat the swim team in a tug of war tourney,” He pulled out his phone to show a picture of the track team holding a trophy, followed by one of the swim team sat in the mud holding Ls above their heads and laughing. “Plus, got a new PB for the 400m.” He smirked, knowing this would make Annabeth jealous.

“Good job!” She punched him in the arm playfully, like she had done when they were kids. Both being track runners, things could get a little… competitive. The first time Annabeth had met Jason they had raced to determine who was the fastest – Annabeth had been a fraction of a second quicker and he was still yet to live it down thirteen years later.

“So how are you settling in? Sorry I wasn’t here when you first arrived.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Your school stuff is important; besides, I’ve had Piper to keep me right.”

Jason moved over and smiled at his girlfriend, lightly stroking her hair. “Sleeping beauty hasn’t been too over excited?”

“No,” Annabeth couldn’t help but smile at the pair of them. “It’s been really great to catch up. Plus, her wild determination has actually been a big help. She pretty much got me a job actually. I start tomorrow.”

“Nice one!” Jason grinned. “Where is it?”

“The Cerulean café? You know just around the corner from the beach front?”

“I don’t think I’ve been there, but the name sounds familiar.” Jason sighed. “Probably just walked past it sometime.”

“Well you are looking at their newest waitress slash server! Certainly beats moping around Thalia and Reyna’s room feeling sorry for myself.”

Piper began mumbling in her sleep and wriggling about. Jason gave Piper a gentle shake and whispered, “Come on babe, time to go to bed.”

“Mmmph but I’m comfy,” came her sleepy reply as she nuzzled into the cushions. Jason scooped her up bridal style and despite her disgruntled noises she burrowed into his shoulder without further complaint.

“You should go to bed too Chase. Don’t want to crick your neck before your first day.”

“Yep. I’m just away to head up.” Annabeth waved him off. He smiled at her, but she and Jason had been friends long enough to not mistake the worry behind his expression.

“Night Annabeth.” With that Jason took his leave down the hall to Piper’s room, manoeuvring her carefully to avoid bumping into doorframes.

As Annabeth watched them go, she couldn’t help but feel warm and fuzzy inside. They were the real deal. Thalia always tried to take credit for the pair of them getting together but Annabeth was pretty sure that if destiny existed it was down to that. It was Annabeth and Thalia who had introduced them.

Piper had been looking for a place to stay outside of the city, tired of being hounded by paparazzi. Annabeth had introduced her to Thalia - this being before the band made it big – since she was in need of a roommate. The pair hit it off and Piper moved into Thalia’s spare room. Unfortunately Thalia had not told Jason straight away when Piper moved in, so when he rocked up at 3am to crash after a night of drinking, Piper woke up to a strange man in her bed. Jason was awoken by the screaming Piper who literally kicked him out of bed. Mortified, Jason apologised profusely and offered to by her breakfast to make it up to her. And the rest was history, now they were coming up on their fourth anniversary.

Annabeth smiled at the memory until she felt something wet hit her thigh. She touched her face. Why on earth was she crying?

\- - -

Annabeth woke up the following morning, having rested much better than her sofa nap. She got dressed in a pair of jean shorts, a light blue t-shirt and a pair of white converse. Sally had said that the uniform was just to dress in blue and given they were near enough on the beach she was happy for Annabeth to wear shorts. She tied her masses of curls up into a high ponytail and gave her face a quick wash.

“Hi, I’m Abby.” She said to the mirror in a bright tone. “Welcome to the Cerulean Café, I’m Abby and I’ll be your server!” Abby, Abby, Abby. Lost in her thoughts, it was her nose that brought her back to earth. Something smelt amazing. She descended the spiral staircase to find Piper making a pot of filter coffee alongside a gigantic stack of pancakes.

“Good morning sunshine!” She smiled at her blonde friend, pulling out a couple of mugs from the cupboard.

“What are you doing here! You’ll be late for work!”

“And leave you on your first day? Nonsense!” Piper scoffed, pouring some liquid in each mug. “I am ‘working remotely’ today and I say I get ten minutes to see my friend off. Now help yourself.”

Annabeth picked up the mug which read ‘Boss Ass Bitch’ while Piper added some milk to her ‘Bisexuali-Tea’ mug, topped off with way too much sugar for Annabeth’s taste. 

“You truly are a jewel among humans.” Annabeth said taking a sip of her coffee. She hoped that she would not lose any love for the drink once she began serving it for a living. “Thank you. You really didn’t have to do all this.”

“But I wanted to, so shut up and enjoy your pancakes. Jason is still dead to the world. I’m letting him sleep in, he really pushed himself training the past week, so I think he deserves it.”

“You’re probably right. I swear the boy must have made some kind of sacrifice to the gods. Every time I see him it’s like he’s gained five pounds of muscle. I’m pretty sure he could bench press me!”

“Well I’m looking forward to a two-man workout. He’s been gone too long!” Piper whined.

“He was gone a week!” Annabeth laughed “And TMI!” Piper just winked back in response before laughing herself. “Well on that lovely note, I’m off to work. Wish me luck!”

“Good luck!” Piper called after Annabeth as she headed to the door.

It was seven forty-five by the time Annabeth reached The Cerulean Café, which anyone else would have classed as early. Not Annabeth, she had the horrible crawling feeling she got anytime she was running late. She wasn’t due to start for another fifteen minutes. She looked up at her new workplace. It was part of a row of stone shops with an alley separating every second shop. Each was painted bright colours, with The Cerulean Café painted the colour of its namesake, with white woodwork. There were three large windows allowing customers to see inside, even the door was glass panels. Everything about the place was screaming ‘Come on in!’.

Annabeth went down the alley to find the back entrance as Sally had instructed her in her ‘Welcome to the team!’ text. The back door had a screen in front on it, she opened both and stepped inside what appeared to be the pantry. It was rather small, but it was stacked high with dry goods.

“Hello?” Annabeth called out as she exited into the room on the other side. Now she found herself in the kitchen. The kitchen was a decent size, three of the four walls being lined with countertops and equipment. The fourth had the shop counter, where cakes and food were laid out for the customers to order from. The floor was a blue linoleum which matched the blue and white tiles lining the walls. She could see on the far side of the room there was a pair of matching walk-in fridge and freezer. There was a large oven with a deep fat fryer next to it, in front on which stood a short guy with brown hair threatening to escape its hairnet. 

“Hi!” came a very enthusiastic greeting from the man. Annabeth reckoned he was about the same age as her, maybe a little bit younger? Twenty-two, twenty-three? He was dressed in a similar blue T-shirt to her own with black, baggy trousers, the main difference being the blue and white striped apron he had on. “You must be the new girl! I’m Leo!” He stuck out his hand which Annabeth shook.

“That’s me, though I go by Abby rather than New Girl.”

“Roger that Abbyratherthannewgirl!” Leo grinned impishly. “I’m the chef. Well one of the chefs. It’s usually me or Sally. You look nervous, are you nervous?” Annabeth didn’t have time to reply before Leo answered for her. “You shouldn’t be nervous. It’s a good place to work. Sally is a good boss, she’ll treat you right.”

“Uh- yeah. I sure hope so.”

“Well, It’s nice to meet you but I need to get back to my prep work. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, unless we are like balls to the wall busy. In that case you just have to work shit out.” He walked over to the till and shouted over into the seating area. “Hey Grover! Abby is here!”

“Awesome! Come on through!” Grover shouted. Annabeth gave Leo a polite nod before following the sound of Grover’s voice. She weighed up whether her confusion trumped her nerves after the strange encounter. 

Grover, the manager who had given her the application, was watering a hanging basket of plants.

“Hey, sorry these were a gift from my girlfriend to Sally, she would be heartbroken if they died on my watch.” He smiled at her a little sheepishly before putting down his watering can. “So, it’s Abby. Nice to meet you, formally I mean. I know Sally gave you a tour already, so I don’t think I need to go through that again. Besides, it’s a pretty small place, very much what you see is what you get!” He walked over to the coat stand by the door, took off a navy pinafore and handed it to her.

“Thanks.”

“Everything you need is in there. Small pad is for drinks orders, large pad is for food. Any food checks get put through to Leo in the kitchen and he will ding us when they are ready.” Grover dropped his voice a little, “He can get pretty grouchy when it gets busy but don’t let him scare you and don’t take his shit. It is table service so while you may be serving you also have to go out with orders.” He picked up a chalk pen began writing specials onto the large chalkboard. Which Annabeth began hastily copying onto the back of her notepad. “Quick learner! I love it! We are going to get on great!”

Annabeth followed Grover around, helping with some of the setting up jobs as he gave her some more information about the café and its patrons. The café’s opening hours were 8.30-4.30 everyday except for Sunday which was 10am-3.30pm and Thursdays when the café reopened to host Sally’s creative writing group from 7pm until 10pm.

“The CW group is a nice gig to be honest. The people are mostly chill and Sally usually locks up so you get away pretty sharp. She tends to throw in a snack as well. However, if you are super against working it I am sure we can work something out.”

“No, no. Not at all. I’ll work all the hours I’m given!”

“Great. It’s a good laugh to be honest. Percy comes pretty regularly, we usually just goof off in the back and get paid for it.”

“Percy?”

“Sally’s son.” Grover pointed up at a picture hanging on the wall of Sally and three other people who must have been her family at the beach. There was a tall rather geeky looking man in an oversized jumper stood on her left kissing her cheek. On her right there was a younger man in his late teens with a toothless, grinning four year old on his shoulders. The man, Percy she supposed, was beaming up at the little girl who was dual wielding ice-cream cones. They looked like a wonderful family. Annabeth looked away and cleared her throat, trying to shake her bitter thoughts. It would be unfair to resent them, especially since Sally had been so kind to her. 

“He’s a massive help for us!” Grover continued. “He normally shows newbies the ropes because he knows the place so well but he’s working his real job today as a lifeguard at the beach. Could not tell you how many shifts he has covered for people. No questions asked or anything! Plus the regulars love him because they like to tease him with his dumb teen stories.”

“Are you talking about Percy?” Leo called through from the kitchen. “Love of my life! I still owe him big for putting me out last week.”

Annabeth’s eyes widened. She opened her mouth to speak but Grover waved her off before she could voice her thought.

“Leo sets himself on fire just about once a week. Don’t let his clumsiness full you, he is the best chef in the Bay.”

“And don’t you forget it!” Leo shouted through before starting singing to himself. Grover checked him watch and Annabeth copied reflexively. It was 8:29.

“Well,” Grover smiled as her, “Ready for your first shift?”

“Absolutely.”

\- - -

Annabeth couldn’t say her first shift was the most exciting eight hours of her life, but she was beaming as she hung up her pinafore at the end of the day. The three of them had finished cleaning duties and were now sat for a cup of coffee around the only table that did not have chairs stacked on it. Apparently, they did this most days to unwind post-shift. Annabeth mainly appreciated the chance to sit down before walking home, but it would also be nice to get to know her colleagues a bit more.

“Cheers!” Leo raised his mug. “To Abby’s first day as part of the Cerulean Clan!”

“Cheers!” Grover and Annabeth chorused and clunked their cups together.

“So, you coming back then?” Grover asked making Annabeth laugh.

“Definitely coming back.” Annabeth could see herself here for a while. It was the perfect level of mental stimulation for where she was at just now. She couldn’t bear to think about going back to university. When Piper had said about getting a design job she could have screamed. Waitressing would be the perfect break from her real life so she could take stock and figure out what the hell she was going to do now. God, the look on he mother’s face when she had skyped to say she was dropping out of school…

Annabeth shook her head to brush the thoughts away.

“You okay?” Grover asked.

“I’m fine, a little dehydrated.” Annabeth feigned.

“Need to keep a water bottle in the back to remember to drink. Juniper got me one and-”

“Oh yes, how could we have forgotten the mystical goblet dear sweet Juniper gave you!” Leo mocked. Annabeth would have felt bad for laughing had it not been the fifth time Grover had brought it up that day. Besides, it was really sweet how smitten Grover was with his girlfriend.

“Hey, you’re just jealous because you are single.” Grover snapped.

“That just means there is more of me to go around!” Leo smirked.

“Well on that lovely note…” Annabeth stood up and brushed herself down. “Same time tomorrow?”

“You know it!” Leo gave her a thumbs up. “Good work today chica! You kicked ass!”

“Thanks!” She grinned. “Oh wait, are you both on tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Just us, Sally, Clarisse, Nico and sometimes Percy who work here.”

“Watch out for Clarisse, she can be a bit scary that one.” Leo chipped in, receiving an elbow from Grover.

“Her bark is worse than her bite. She can just be a bit… territorial with newbies.” Grover’s voice was even but his face betrayed whatever flashback of Clarisse’s misdeeds he was remembering. Annabeth made a mental note to keep her head down and work when sharing a shift with Clarisse.

“Yeah, she warms up okay. It’s Nico who is the pain. You’ll know he’s working if you come in and all the fun is sucked out of the room.” Leo jibed but his tone was light despite his harsh words. “He’s way too doom and gloom for someone who can’t even legally drink. The second he turns twenty-one I am getting him shit faced.”

“Yeah, you better mark January 28th in your calendar. Nobody will be safe!” Annabeth chuckled along with the others. Would she still be in Dalinver Bay come the new year? That was too big a question for now. Baby steps. One day at a time.

“Paul does the occasional shift if we are absolutely desperate but that’s why you got hired so don’t expect to see him working very often.”

“Paul is Sally’s husband.” Grover answered Annabeth’s confused look. “He brings in Estelle a fair bit, same with Perce. Man, it is so weird having someone who doesn’t know anyone work here!”

“How do you mean?”

“Sally tends to adopt strays is all. She can’t help it, she’s too nice.” Leo answered for Grover. There was something about his tone that made Annabeth wonder if the pair of them were also strays taken in by Sally. Was he calling her a stray? It wasn’t that far off the truth if she was being honest.

“Leo was absolutely right though,” Grover changed the subject. “You did do a great job today. Rest up and we will see you tomorrow.”

Annabeth stepped out of the café, waving farewell to her co-workers. 

Yup. Just got to get through one day at a time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed the latest chapter! No more teasing - Percy will finally make an appearance in the next one!


	3. Time to Earn those Pay Checks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annabeth reminisces about some of the events that led to her arrival in Dalinver Bay. While working a busy shift she finally meets the infamous Percy Jackson.

“Hello?” Annabeth called out as she let herself into the flat. “Anybody home?”

No reply came so she assumed that Jason and Piper were out. The were probably catching each other up about what they had done in their time apart for the last fortnight.

Annabeth journeyed into the kitchen and sure enough there was a note on the countertop from Piper saying they would be back in time for dinner. She looked at her watch which flashed up 5:30pm.

So.

Annabeth plonked herself down in front of the TV and began mindlessly flipping through the channels. She picked up her phone and was about to start scrolling through her apps but then remembered she deleted social media off of her phone. Next she decided it would be a good idea to do the dishes from this morning, only to discover Piper had already washed, dried and put away everything.

It was 5:39pm.

“Screw this.” She muttered under her breath and climbed up the spiral staircase. No way was she ready to be alone in this place. A run. Yes, she needed to go for a run.

She hadn’t bothered to unpack her suitcase. Why bother when she had no idea how long she would be staying in the Bay? Rifling through her haphazardly packed belongings she found a pair of purple sport leggings, a sports bra and a plain black t-shirt. Well that was lucky. After quickly getting changed and grabbing her earphones she descended the staircase.

Being a guest in someone else’s home made the whole leaving process that much more stressful. She slipped the front door key from its ring so it could stay in her pocket along with her phone to play music while she ran. After a pat down - with minor wincing as she brushed her sides – post locking the door she was content to go.

Thalia had once told her that the Dalinver Bay marina was an unbeatable view. Looking out at the scene before her as she approached fifteen minutes into her run, she could believe it. The place looked like a moment trapped in time. There were a couple of dozen boats docked in small clusters as well as some coming on their way back into the harbour. Even tied up Annabeth could see a rainbow of sails which she imagined looked staggering when out on the water. The stone key led out to a small lighthouse which was currently unlit. At the base of it she could see what she presumed was a family of two parents and two sons fishing off of the edge. Most likely the place would have had way more people had she come a few hours before, but she appreciated the chance to see it in the more tranquil atmosphere.

Each foot hit the ground with an added oomph as Annabeth turned around to head back the way she came. Somehow heading back to the flat was allowing the dark thoughts to creep back in. She turned the volume higher but even Sia’s booming voice could not mask the intrusive thoughts that accompanied each footstep.

_Failure._

_Useless._

_Weak._

_Disappointment._

The same words over and over haunting her. She pushed herself harder. Taking off into a full-blown sprint until she felt like her lungs were on fire and her legs screamed at her to stop. The thought she was finally able to rationalise was that she had work tomorrow and she could hardly call in sick because she knackered her legs running away from her demons.

Elastic Heart indeed.

\- - -

It should have been raining. In movies when the shit hits the fan its always raining. But no, the sky was in fact perfectly clear, there was nothing to mask Annabeth’s tearstained face as she pushed through pedestrians on West 34th Street. Her ribs ached but she heaved the two large suitcases behind her anyway. She had packed in a rush, one suitcase held half of her wardrobe, grabbed and dumped in, barely zipping closed. The other she had taken a little more time with. It held the important stuff; the framed pictures of her, Thalia, Jason and Piper, the first set of blueprints she had ever drawn up, the box of souvenirs from the summer camp she went to growing up, trinkets collected in her time at NYU as an architecture student, the snow globe her dad got her for Christmas and the Yankees cap her mother gave her for her tenth birthday. Despite everything it still meant something to her, even if it was just a memory of a time when they could still be in a room together.

Pressing on through the crowd, people made angry noises at her. But she marched on to her destination, not taking notice of them. Stupid tourists she thought miserably Why are they out so early? The rational part of her brain mocked that it was after 7am and hey, isn’t New York the city that never sleeps? She was beginning to get a stitch, but she was too afraid that if she stopped walking now, she would go no further. She couldn’t stop until she reached the station.

Tourists continued to block her way as she turned onto 7th Avenue. Her suitcases seemed to get heavier by the second, as did her breathing. Pushing through the pain she carried on round the next corner until she could see Penn Station, in all its granite glory. The West entrance was one of her favourite Greek inspired buildings in the area, though it was not the one she needed. Annabeth took this moment to catch her breath and plan her next move.

She didn’t have a plan.

For the first time in her life, Annabeth Chase did not have a plan.

Somehow in the last twenty-four hours everything in her life had fallen apart and she had no idea how to put it back together again. Her eyes began to fill with tears as she focused them on the Corinthian columns. So perfectly designed, a marvel really that they and so many others like them had the power to hold the weight of such heavy components. Sometimes building were the only thing that made sense to Annabeth.

_So why did you drop out of school then?_

“Shut up.” Annabeth muttered to herself as the tears threatened to fall. “Shut up you stupid bitch and figure out how to fix this.”

Annabeth stood and stared at the entrance. She had no idea how much time passed while she remained there, eyes fixed on the door as she tried to figure out where to go. Her father’s? And give the step-monster the satisfaction of her failure? No thanks. Her mother’s? Out of the question.

At that moment, a young teen walked out of the doorway, their t-shirt catching Annabeth’s gaze. It was one of those moments which made Annabeth almost believe in fate. Across this Person’s chest was emblazed the logo for the Hunters of Artemis.

“Thalia.”

Annabeth whipped out her phone and scrolled through her contacts until she reached T. She took a deep breath before hitting the phone to dial. With each ring her anxiety grew. Somehow, she knew the second she told Thalia it would all be real.

“Hey chick! What’s up? It’s early.” Came the musical voice from the other end of the line. Annabeth swallowed.

“Shit, sorry.” Her chest began to tighten. Of course she shouldn’t have called Thalia. She was on the biggest tour the Hunters of Artemis had ever had. She was so stupid to bother Thalia. “You had a show last night. Sorry, you must be tired. I can call-“ but before she could finish her sentence her voice broke. All the tension that was in her body snapped and came pouring out in tears and sobs.

“Annabeth? Annabeth talk to me.” Thalia sounded worried, making Annabeth feel all the more guilty. “What’s wrong, what’s happened?” Annabeth tried to answer but all that came were more tears. “Take your time okay. Take a nice deep breath for me.” Thalia began coaching Annabeth through the phone to steady her breathing until she finally felt like she could muster up the words.

“It’s over.” She said finally. “I left Luke. For good this time.”

“Oh girl, I’m sorry to hear that.” Thalia’s voice sounded sympathetic but unconvinced. “What happened? Do you need me to talk to him, make him beg you to take him back.”

“No.” Annabeth said too quickly. “Whatever you do, don’t call him. I don’t want to ever see him again.” Her free arm instinctive began caressing her ribs. “Please Thalia.”

“What did he do?” She sounded harsher now, already on Annabeth’s side for whatever she was about to say. “Did he cheat on you? Say they word Annabeth and I drop everything to kick his ass.”

“He didn’t cheat on me.” Annabeth felt a tear roll down her cheek. “He could never have cheated on me.”

“How can I help? What do you need?”

“Can I crash at yours? I need to get out of the city.”

“Of course.” Thalia hesitated for a moment. “Am I coming home?”

“No, no of course not. I need you to go out there and kill it every night until the tour is over. I need you to tell me about all your exciting adventures when you get home after rocking every single one of those sold out gigs. I’m expecting to see at least a dozen bras from your adoring fangirls!” The pair of them laughed, the mood lightening a little.

“Think we’ve already passed that mark bro.”

“Oooh, better not tell Reyna.” She froze, not believing the words that just came out. More tears silently fell down her cheeks.

“Okay. I only have a couple of weeks left. Jason is away for some school thing, but I’ll call Piper. She’ll get you settled in.

“One last thing,” Annabeth’s throat tightened. “If Luke calls you looking for me. Do not under any circumstance tell him where I am.” She swallowed hard. “Promise me Thals. No matter what he says to you.”

“I promise Annabeth.”

“Good. I’m going to get on the next train.”

Two hours later she was in Dalinver Bay, waiting to meet Piper at the Cerulean Café.

\- - -

By her third shift Annabeth was beginning to get into the swing of things but was not prepared for the bustle that was a Friday. The café was heaving. Lunch rush had begun, and the place was absolutely slammed. It was one of the hottest days of the year so far and it felt like half the town had turned out to the beach to catch rays, waves and tans. Annabeth was sweating buckets and could only imagine how poor Leo felt slaving over the fryers. The heat was just adding to his usual crunch time stress level, so she and Grover were getting the brunt of it.

“I swear if that is another food check Abby I’m walking out of here!” he growled when she approached the window with her pad.

“Where else could you work and get free food?”

“Anywhere, I’m a chef!” He threw a dish cloth at her and snatched up the check.

Annabeth returned to the floor and began clearing some tables. The bell dinged for another food order. She began loading up the plates – she was getting better at balancing three– while Grover was taking another order from a customer.

“Two iced lattes to go coming up! What is the name?”

“Uhhh Grover, I need you!” Leo shouted from the kitchen in his oh-shit-I-done-goofed voice which rarely inspired hope. Grover looked panicked and Annabeth placed down each of the plates she was carrying and jumped on to finish taking the order as Grover went to fight whatever - hopefully metaphorical – fire Leo had caused.

She had scarcely picked back up the final plate when another customer dinged the bell at the counter for assistance.

“Sorry, I’ll be with you in just a second.” Annabeth replied without even looking up.

“Need me to jump on?” Annabeth looked over to see a semi familiar face.

“Excuse me?” Annabeth choked out. She was startled for a moment and just stared at him. The speaker was a guy who looked about her age. It could not have been more than a few seconds, but it was enough time to take stock of the stranger.

He had a lopsided grin, one that made her certain this guy had a mischievous side. His hair was dark and floppy, like he had hopped off of a board - skate or surf – before stepping into the café. But his eyes were what struck her the most. They were a deep, sea green. She was almost transported back to her trip to Greece with her dad and step family as a child, gazing across the calm Mediterranean ocean.

“Oh, sorry, you’re new.” He scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. Annabeth felt her cheeks flush as she snapped back to reality. “I’m Percy, Sally's son. When the shop gets quite busy I help out. Grover texted me a mayday, so I thought I better head over.”

So this was the infamous Percy. From everything she had heard about him from her co-workers she was half surprised he didn’t have a halo.

“Percy!” Grover practically cried in delight “My favourite person in the universe! Please take the till! Abby get moving with that order.” When Grover spoke her name she saw a look of recognition she could not quite decipher cross Percy's face.

“Right.” Without another word to the boys she turned to finish taking her order over to table 14. Hoping that in the time that had been wasted the food hadn’t gotten cold. The last thing anyone needed was a complaint on top of everything they were already dealing with. Out of the corner of her eye she could make out the pair fist bumping.

The rest of the shift was a bit of a blur. There wasn’t really any time to think let alone make small talk. Annabeth realised since she had not introduced herself to Percy he didn’t use her name and would just occasionally call out New Girl. It was mildly irritating, but she didn’t really have the luxury to complain either. It probably wouldn’t have bothered her so much had she not overheard Grover tell him it was Abby at least twice already.

After the lunch rush there had been a quieter period where they were able to catch their breath a little bit. Percy was restocking some of the home bakes in the display counter. Annabeth observed as he haphazardly placed nutty treat next to gluten, dairy and hypoallergenic pieces and could not bite her tongue.

“I don’t think that is a good idea.”

“Sorry?”

“Well those traybakes are full of nuts and you are putting them right next to the treats most people with allergies would buy. It just doesn’t seem like a very wise move.”

“Huh.” Percy stopped what he was doing. “I had not thought about that. You are probably right. Thank you, Wise Girl.” Annabeth rolled her eyes.

“Just trying to be helpful.” She muttered, turning away from him.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he continued “It was helpful. Thanks, Wise Girl.”

“Oh god, please don’t make that a thing.”

“Well" Percy moved closer to her and dropped his volume to just above a whisper “If you are going to go by a fake name anyway, I think mine suits you better than Abby.”

Annabeth froze and dropped the cup she was holding. Luckily it bounced rather than smashing but Percy scrambled to pick it up.

“Sorry, I just realised how creepy that came off. Your secret is safe with me. I just don’t want to call you something fake. Unless you really want to change your name which also is good, I mean more power to you- it’s just that I think names hold a lot of power and oh god I’m rambling I just didn’t mean to upset you and-" Before Percy could vomit anymore words Annabeth doubled over laughing, startling him.

“You are such a seaweed brain.” She finally managed to say between wheezes. “That’s what I will call you. Seaweed Brain. Got a nice ring to it.” Percy started laughing too.

“Alright, Wise Girl.”

“Okay, Seaweed Brain.”

Percy began picking up the home bakes he had incorrectly place while she continued loading the dishwasher.

“I have to ask,” Annabeth began tentatively. “Did Sally tell you?”

“No,” Percy stated, he sounded offended. “My mom would never betray someone’s trust like that. I just happened to be in the back doing some prep work during your interview. I didn’t want to pry.”

“Oh, okay.” The corners of her lips turned up slightly. “I appreciate that.”

“But y’know,” Percy continued. “If you ever need someone objective to vent to, I’m a pretty good listener. Like I know you’ve only just met me so I get if you want me to get lost but I just wanted you to know that the option is there if you need it.”

Annabeth couldn’t help but chuckle. Percy seemed to be an expert at putting his foot in his mouth. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Great!” He smiled that lopsided grin again. “So, fancy helping me put these out in a way that won’t get my mom sued?”

“Sure.” She replied and spent the rest of her shift dictating to him where to lay out different cakes and treats.

At 5pm the last of the customers left and Annabeth flipped over the ‘Welcome’ sign to read ‘Sorry, we’re closed!’. The floor of them plopped down for a breather before starting to clean.

“Ugh, I hate when customers don’t leave.” Leo moaned, stretching out his back.

“Thanks for coming in Perce,” Grover clapped his friend on the back. “I owe you one.”

“Funny that, I’m pretty certain you owe me five.” Percy chuckled as he said it and Grover punched him in the arm. “I kid, I kid. Nah man, it was my pleasure.” He looked at Annabeth and smiled before checking his watch. “I’ve got time for a coffee if you guys want to take a break before shutting down for the night.”

“Yeah, that would be nice.” Annabeth replied before either of the others could speak. In that moment she realised the question had probably been geared more towards the guys - his actual friends – but this didn’t seem to throw him at all. In fact, he beamed and jumped up to put on a new pot of coffee.

“Ooh we are getting the Ritz treatment tonight Grover!” Leo whooped.

“Easy for him when he isn’t the one who has to clean it up. You are just making mess for the sake of it.” Grover yelled over to Percy who just waved him off. Annabeth rose to her feet.

“Let me help with the cups.” She collected two of them from the customer side of the hatch and passed them to Grover and Leo, each taking milk in their coffee. When Percy joined her he handed her a mug and she took a sip. “Damn, that’s a good coffee. What did you do?”

Percy shrugged. “You struck me as a no nonsense kind of girl. No milk or sugar, just a double filter.”

“You wasted a filter on our post work break!” Grover exclaimed, Annabeth felt her face burn. But covered it up by taking a big sip. As she was throwing back her drink, she could have sworn she had seen Percy look a little flushed as well. But the coffee was still very hot. So it was probably that. Most likely.

The silence was broken by Percy’s phone blaring Cake By The Ocean. He looked at the caller ID and sighed before picking up.

“Sorry guys, gotta take this.” He waved his phone and moved into the kitchen before answering. “Go for Percy.” The others began whispering to each other, but Annabeth kept her eyes fixed on Percy. “Yeah. Uh huh.” He sighed deeply. “Okay. I’ll be right there. No, it’s not a problem. I said it’s not a problem Nico. See you soon.” He hung up the phone and shook his head before returning to the table. “Sorry guys, I’m going to have to split. Something’s come up.” Grover began to ask if everything was okay but Percy flashed him what she could only assume was his ‘don’t ask’ look.

He smiled at Annabeth. “It was really nice to meet you. See you round.” He gave her a two fingered mini salute and headed out the door before she could say the same back.

“Well this place isn’t going to clean itself. Time to earn our pay checks peeps.”

Annabeth stood up and stretched herself out. As she completed her cleaned jobs she couldn’t help but obsess over what Percy had said to her about being there to listen. He was right, it was a very forward thing to suggest to a stranger. Especially since she couldn’t even bring herself to tell her best friends. She flushed when she thought of interactions with him throughout the day, embarrassed about how she had acted in front of her boss’ son. As soon as she got home she would consult Piper, she was an expert at situations like this.

In the meantime, she would have to just crack on with her work.

Time to earn those pay checks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The mystery is unfolding a little bit further...
> 
> Thank you all so much for the kind comments and kudos on chapters one and two! Hope you keep enjoying where the story is headed!


	4. A Little Lighter Than Yesterday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annabeth gets into a fight with her friends and goes out to clear her head, instead finding something quite unexpected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is quite dialogue heavy. But we are starting to fill in some of the gaps of what lead Annabeth to Dalinver Bay.

Percy’s presence meant the post-closing break was a little longer than the previous two had been. Annabeth didn’t mind, it just meant she got home later than expected. By the time she was turning the key in the lock it was nearly 6:30 so she was surprised to find Jason already sat on the couch in the living room.

“Hey!” he called as she opened the door. “Good shift?”

“Yeah, it was interesting. Busy but good.” Annabeth took off her handbag and planted herself down on the other sofa. “What are we watching?”

“Blue Planet. But I’m happy to change it if you want.” He waved the remote at her but she shook her head slightly. “So, what was so interesting about work? Annoying customers?”

“No, nothing like that. I’ll give the rundown when Piper gets home. Saves me having to tell the story twice.”

“That’s fair.”

“So how come you are here so early? I didn’t think Piper would get back from the city for at least another hour.”

“Oh she won’t. I, uh, just thought I would uh, surprise her. Cook dinner or something.”

“Aw, that is very cute.” Annabeth couldn’t help but feel this wasn’t the whole truth, but she let it go. She was a guest here herself after all. She could hardly tell Jason to not come round to his girlfriend’s house. “How was your day? What did you get up to?”

“Well, I got up and went for a run this morning. Made food, ate food. Started on the reading for next semester. Thalia called. They had a really good show last night apparently. Now I’m just chilling with David Attenborough.”

“Nice. Sounds productive.” Was all Annabeth said in reply, she was tired after such a busy day. But she and Jason had never felt the need to fill silences for the sake of it.

The pair watched the episode, they oohed and ahhed at the different creatures they saw. They would pick two creatures and pit them against one another; which one would win in a fight, which was the cutest. Annabeth found a sense of calm watching the ocean and its creatures. So much wonder. It made problems on land seem almost insignificant.

“Honey, I’m hooooooome!” Piper called as she made her entrance. She dropped her bag next to Annabeth’s and planted herself next to Jason, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“You’re early.” He said with a smile.

“I managed to get on an earlier train. Traffic gods must have been smiling down on me.” Piper snuggled in closer to Jason and squeezed his hand. “So then Chase, what have I missed? Anything exciting at the Cerulean Café?”

“Well,” Annabeth began, wondering if she was making a mountain at a molehill. “I kinda made an ass out of myself in front of my boss’ son. It was really embarrassing.”

“Oh dang!” Piper empathised. “What happened?”

Piper recounted to the pair of them her awkward introduction to Percy. How she kept tripping over her words and how he had known about her using a fake name at work. The pair exchanged a glance when she brought up the fake name thing but said nothing more. Annabeth knew she would have to tell them everything eventually, but she wasn’t ready yet. She probably wouldn’t be ready for a long time. She needed to not be Annabeth Chase right now.

“So yeah now he insists on calling me Wise Girl. But its fine ‘cause I just call him Seaweed Brain.”

Her friends exchanged another look.

“What?” She asked, trying to decipher what it meant.

Piper raised her hands. “Just sounds a little flirty to me.” She looked to Jason who was nodding.

“It was not flirting. He didn’t want to call me a fake name and if some dude is calling me a nickname, you know he is getting one right back.”

“If you say so…” Jason added but caught Piper’s eye again. Any other time this would have just been usual banter. They used to joke all the time about Annabeth being an accidental flirt. Luke hated it. But it wasn’t any other time, instead she swallowed her anger down and thought of an excuse to change the subject.

“Oi, Grace, what happened to you making dinner?”

“You were going to make dinner?” Piper raised an eyebrow at him.

“Hey, I can still make dinner!” Jason crossed his arms and fake pouted.

“Nah, it’s Friday. Let’s order in.” Piper countered.

“Cool. What are we thinking? Chinese? Indian? I’ll go get the menus.” Annabeth offered, getting up and heading into the kitchen. She looked through several drawers but couldn’t seem to find them anywhere. She was about to head into the living room to ask Piper if she knew where they were but was stopped by whispering voices.

“Thanks for coming round babe. I didn’t want Annabeth coming home to an empty house again.”

“Me neither.” Jason added in his own hushed tones. “Though I am glad you got here when you did so I didn’t have to poison you with my cooking.” Piper threw a pillow and him and chuckled.

So that was it. They were worried.

“She still hasn’t told you what happened? Thalia was calling earlier wanting an update and I had no idea what to say. She’s pissed at me for not being supportive enough.”

“No,” Piper sighed. “And I haven’t asked. I’ll let her tell me when she’s ready. Or if she decides she is going back.” Piper shook her head. “You didn’t hear the message Jason. She doesn’t even seem to remember ringing me. She was unintelligible. She sounded terrified.”

All at once Annabeth felt her breath hitch in her throat, her veins ran ice cold and her heart felt like a jack hammer. Annabeth stared at the fridge, finally realising that the menus were being pinned up by a magnet.

In that moment Annabeth saw red. She marched over to the fridge and pulled the menus down. She walked back through to the living room and dropped them on the glass coffee table.

“There you go guys,” she said hurriedly. “I think I’m actually going to go for a run.”

“Oh, uh, cool.” Jason looked at Piper then back at Annabeth. “Want some company? I bet I could beat you to the marina and back. I could use a bit of a stretch.”

“No, thank you.” Annabeth stated. “I thought you already went for a run earlier.”

“Yeah, I did but-“

“I don’t need your pity Jason.” Annabeth’s voice took a darker tone. “I’m not some lost lamb in need of saving. If me being here is an inconvenience I can go somewhere else.”

“Annabeth, why would you think you’re an inconvenience?” Jason looked shocked but Annabeth kept going.

“I don’t need a babysitter. I’m a grown ass woman and I can look after myself.”

“No one is saying that you can’t Annabeth.” Piper soothed, “We just… we’re just worried.”

“Well don’t.” Annabeth grabbed her running shoes from by the door and started lacing them up.

“Where are you going?”

“For a run.” Annabeth huffed, completing the second left. “I need some time to think.”

“Please don’t shut us out Annabeth.” Piper pleaded. “We just want to understand.”

“Well you can’t.” Annabeth snapped. Jason stood up, holding Piper’s hand still.

“Don’t talk to Piper like that.” He had a fury behind his eyes that Annabeth hadn’t seen since they were teenagers. If she were in her right state of mind she would have apologised immediately, but she was too angry to care right now.

“Jason, its fine. She’s upset.” Piper squeezed his hand and tried to pull him back down onto the sofa but he was standing his ground.

“It’s not fine. Piper has taken you into her home because _you _asked. _You _called her crying and never explained why. Two days later _you _call Thalia, tell her you’ve broken up with the guy we all though you were going to marry and give no explanation as to why you need somewhere to stay. How do you expect us to feel? You could at least show Piper some respect.”

“Well then don’t talk about me like I’m some broken doll you need to fix.” Annabeth roared. “I have had quite enough of people trying to fix me.”

Piper was standing up now too. Silent tears were pouring down her cheeks as she made her way to Annabeth. Jason opened his mouth to say something else. By the look on his face it was unclear if he was backing down or not. Either way, Annabeth didn’t want to hear it. She turned on her heel and ran out the door.

It was not a good run. She had no form, her footwork was clumsy and heavy, and she left without her phone so she didn’t even have music to keep a steady beast to. Still in her work clothes, she felt the cold air raise goosebumps on her arms and legs. She tried to pick a focal point to run towards but the tears in her eyes were making it hard to see. Pushing on, she relied on her muscle memory, taking no notice of the world around her.

Before she realised it, she found herself at the marina. For the first time running this particular route she found that it was empty of people, only the little boats were left. Most people would be spending their Friday evenings with the people they loved, not arguing with them. She stopped in her tracks. Normally this was where she would run alongside the harbour and then take the turn off the go back to Piper’s.

Annabeth took a deep breath in and used the neckline of her tshirt to dry her eyes. Not knowing what else to do, she walked along the stone quay, letting her fingertips scrape against the shoulder high wall running along side it. When she reached the base of the light house. Looking up at the large structure, she couldn’t help but feel nostalgic. She recognised it but she did not know from where.

She found a dent in the stone wall and heaved herself up so she could get a look at the stone plaque on the side. To her disappointment it was pretty faded, she could only make out a few letters and they didn’t make any sense which she chalked up to her dyslexia.

She stared at the plaque, willing the words to make sense but to no avail. To her left she could she a door to go inside but a push told her that the lighthouse was closed. She made a mental note to look up if it was ever open to visitors. Instead she settled to sit down and watch the sun set.

So that’s what she did. She sat and watched the waves crash against the wall, feeling the spray hit her shins and looked out across the bay. The view over the marina was truly stunning in the golden light. She longed for a notebook and pencil to sketch it.

“It’s really something huh?” The voice came from below and made her jump. She looked down to see none other than Percy Jackson stood with that damn lopsided grin on his face.

“You scared me half to death, Seaweed Brain! What are you doing here?”

“Um, isn’t it obvious?” he lifted on hand at a time, one holding a bucket, the other a fishing rod. “Going night fishing. What are you doing here?”

“I, uh.” Annabeth cursed herself, she could hardly tell him to mind his own business when she asked first. “Came to watch the sunset.”

“Well I don’t blame you, it’s pretty spectacular.” Percy laid down his equipment. “Mind if I join you?”

“Not at all. Plenty of quay to go around.”

Percy found the same foothold Annabeth had and hoisted himself up. He sat down next to her cross legged and scratched the back of his head. The pair sat in silence for a moment. Somehow, despite the fact they had only known each other for a day, it didn’t feel awkward.

“So, do you often fish at sunset?” she finally asked, curiosity eating at her.

“Nah, only at the full moon. In the summer they like to stay deep in the water where it’s cool. They come up to see the light because they think it’s day. Feel sorry for anyone who comes out here tomorrow when all the fishies are sleeping.”

“Huh, I had no idea.”

Percy’s cheeks flushed. “Yeah, just something my dad taught me.”

“Cool” Annabeth smiled. “Do you go fishing with him?”

“He… Yeah, we go when he’s in town. I don’t see him very much. It’s a long story.” Percy was scratching the back of his head again. Annabeth wondered if this was a nervous tick or something.

“Well, I’ve got time.” She smiled and cocked her head to the side. “I mean, if you want to tell it. You aren’t the only good listener around y’know.”

He leaned backwards, resting his weight on his palms, now anchoring him to the stone.

“So my mom is pretty much the best person ever right,” he began, looking to Annabeth for approval and she nodded, “Well I truly believe the best people have the worst luck. When my mom was five her parents died in a plane crash, she was sent to live with her uncle who was by all accounts a douche. All she ever wanted to do was be a writer, she worked in a café, saved everything she ever earned then, boom. Uncle gets cancer. She gives up going to college to look after him, but of course he dies and she is left with nothing but a shack up in Montauk.”

“Oh my god.” Annabeth didn’t know what she had expected him to say, but certainly not that.

“So, anyway, she moves to the shack and begins working a café job up there where she meets my dad, Poseidon.” Annabeth couldn’t quite read Percy’s face when he said the name. “And he’s this rich, important guy so they keep the relationship a secret.” The bitterness in his voice finally broke through. “They have this whirlwind romance and then he gets called away by his family for some really important reason and never came back. She told me he was lost at sea.”

“Oh Percy, that’s terrible” Annabeth began, “But how-“

“Oh I’m just getting started.” He shook his head and chuckled darkly. “My mom moved to New York to raise me and I’m going to skip a few years but basically by that time my twelfth birthday rolled around we had finally saved enough money to leave my stepdad-“ Percy clocked her confused look and added “-different stepdad but can we not go in to that?” She nodded and he carried on “Great. So, we left Gabe, moved out to Dalinver so mom could open the café. It’s opening day and who should our first customer be but the great Poseidon himself.”

“No way!” Annabeth’s jaw had just about hit the floor.

“Oh you know it. I swear to god it was the only time in my life I have heard my mother swear.” He paused, picked up a small stone and tossed it into the water.

“And did her recognise her?”

“Yup, she literally dropped her cup when he said her name.” Percy’s eyebrows knotted. “My mom just starts stammering and he gets all red and defensive and then suddenly she’s angry and yelling. She accuses him of hunting us down. Says that if he didn’t want anything to do with us twelve years ago why should now be any different. Of course, I then click onto who this dude was and that my mom has spent twelve years lying to me. So then I’m angry and try to take off but mom is crying and so I stop myself and go hug her and tell him he has to go.” Percy shakes his head at the memory. “I remember wanting to hit him so badly. Wishing that it had been true, that he had been dead. But Poseidon stayed. He said that he was sorry. That he wanted to make things right. Ha. Like you can just magic up twelve years of memories. That is the stuff you can’t get back.”

Percy was staring off into the distance again and went silent. Annabeth could hardly stop herself before saying-

“So the fishing?”

“The fishing, right. Well basically he appealed to my mom through the only way he knew would wear her down. He wrote her a letter everyday apologizing, saying that he just wanted to get to know me until she finally cracked and she let him have a supervised visit. She asked me first of course, and I didn’t want to let her down, knowing how hard a decision it had been for her. I mean it took nearly a year. And yeah so then I had a dad. He moved into the city for work and got a place with a spare room so I had a home with him. Sometimes he’ll come out here to visit. He took me, Grover my then girlfriend to Greece for my 21st birthday, that was pretty cool.” Percy sighed. “But I don’t think I’ll ever get over it y’know?”

“Actually yeah,” Annabeth nodded slightly, her heart racing for some reason. “I kinda do know. Obviously different situation but it feels kind of similar to me and my mom. My parents split up before I was born, my mother dumping me on my father’s doorstep practically before they cut the umbilical cord because she had her own dreams to pursue. No time for children. Hell, my dad didn’t really have interest in children either. Both of them were in love with their careers.”

Percy turned to face her, but Annabeth carried on looking up at the lighthouse.

“So at first it was just me and dad. When I was five he married my step-monster and they had my step-brothers. One happy family with the bastard offspring tagged on. Things only changed after I won a state-wide STEM competition. Dad sent along a newspaper clipping to Athena and the next thing I knew she appeared on our doorstep. She had me pegged as some kind of prodigy she came back as if she hadn’t been absent for seven years.”

“Wow.” Percy shook his head. “I’m sorry to speak ill of your mother but what a dick.”

“Right?” Annabeth laughed. “So yeah, not quite the same but I get where you are coming from.”

Annabeth met his eye and it was like her heart stopped. Just for a split second, so fast she was sure she imagined it.

She coughed to clear her throat, now it was her turn to scratch her head. Looking around it had become dark in the time they were talking.

“So the lighthouse.” She began, changing the subject “How come it hasn’t come on?”

“It doesn’t actually work anymore, not for decades.” Percy indicated to the sign. “It was built by some famous dude, John McSomething. He built a bunch of lighthouses along Rhode Island.”

“Of course!” Her face lit up. “John McComb Jr! I knew I recognised it. He built the Montauk Point Lighthouse. It’s the oldest working lighthouse in the US you know?”

“I can’t say I did!” he laughed. “How did you?”

“I studied architecture at NYU. I did a project on Lighthouses for my application.”

“Oh wow! That sounds really cool” Annabeth’s cheeks flooded scarlet, thinking Percy was making fun of her but when she met his eyes again she could see that he was genuinely interested. “I’ll have to tell my mom. I don’t think she knew that before coming out here.”

“Doe it ever open?” Annabeth asked. “The lighthouse?”

“Yeah, during daytime you can go up and look around. It was converted into a mini-museum years ago.” Percy shifted his weight between his hands. “I could take you some time, if you’d like?”

Annabeth’s heart picked up the pace again. Before she could stop herself the words came out. “Yes, that would be great!”

Percy gave her a strange look. “Would it?”

“How do you mean?”

“Annabeth, you’re crying.” His voice was so soft. Her hand flew to her face and sure enough it was wet. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she began frantically wiping her eyes. “You got me. I just had a fight with my friends, I’m being stupid. I was being stupid. I overreacted to something and now I’m too embarrassed to go home. So I’m spending my Friday night watching the sun set with a near enough stranger.”

“Well,” Percy started, the worry fading from those sea-green eyes. “The first step is always admitting that you messed up. I’m sure your friends will forgive you. All you have to do is apologise.”

“I don’t know if I can,” she spoke at barely above a whisper, the tears making her voice sound reedy. “I said some pretty terrible things when they were just trying to help. I don’t know if I’m brave enough to go back.”

“Want me to walk you?” Percy stood up and held out his hand to her. “I can say from my many years of teenage delinquency that the walk back when you have something to apologise for is always the worst part. At least this way you don’t have to be alone.”

Annabeth looked at his hand for a couple of moments before reaching for it. Percy helped her up and she tried not to wince as she felt the pressure on her ribs. He picked up his fishing equipment and the pair made their way back off of the quay. Annabeth apologised for interrupting his fishing plans, but her just waved her off and said she was being silly.

Percy distracted her as they made their way back to Piper’s. He told her about some of the locals who frequented the café. There was his old Latin teacher, Chiron who had moved out to the small town for his health after getting frustrated at city life, Annabeth had remembered Sally talking about him during her interview. There was also some of the guys from Percy’s swim team, Beckendorf, Lee and Michael. Percy recounted a recent training retreat where some of the other guys tried to haze their new captain, Beckendorf, but instead ended up getting locked out of the hotel room and begging mercy to get back in. Annabeth laughed, and Percy grinned. Something told her he had more to do with them getting locked out than he was letting on.

Finally, he told her about Hazel, half-sister to Nico, one of her co-workers. Annabeth told him she was yet to actually meet Nico himself.

“He only works weekends, so I’m not surprised. He’s a good kid. Not had the easiest go of it.” Percy adverted his gaze and jumped back to talking about his sister. “Hazel is pretty much the sweetest person you will ever meet. She likes to come in and tease Nico whenever his crush comes in.”

“That’s so mean!” Annabeth gasped while laughing. “I thought you said she was sweet!”

“She is!” Percy insisted. “As long as you aren’t her brother at least.”

Annabeth chuckled and then came to a halt. They were finally stood at Piper’s front door.

“Well, this is me.” She reached into her shorts pocket for her key. At least she wouldn’t need to beg Piper to let her in.

“Do you want back up?” Percy asked sincerely.

“No, thanks though.” Annabeth shook her head. “I mean, either she’ll be waiting up and we’ll have to hash it out, or she’s put the chain on and I’m sleeping on the porch for penance.”

“How about I just make sure you make it inside then?”

“Deal.” Annabeth took a deep breath in, turned the key and gently pushed the door open. No chain in sight. She turned to Percy and mouthed ‘Thank you’. He mouthed back ‘Any time’ and gave her a thumbs up. She stepped inside and nudged the door closed behind her.

Tiptoeing through the hall she saw that the living room light was still on. Piper was sat on the armchair facing the door. She had fallen asleep but even so it was clear that she had been crying. Annabeth silently debated leaving her there but decided that they couldn’t sleep on this argument. She walked over and gently shook her friend’s shoulder, causing Piper to jerk up.

“Jas-“ Piper blinked. “Annabeth.”

“I’m sorry I was such an asshole earlier. I know you were just worried about me. You didn’t deserve the rage monster. I wasn’t even angry at you. I‘m angry at myself. I want to tell you everything, I swear I do. I just need a bit of time, is that okay?”

“Yeah, we are worried.” Piper said. “We love you Annabeth. I’m sorry Jason went off at you like that. That wasn’t cool either.” 

“He was defending you.” Annabeth shrugged. “If the roles were reversed I would have done the exact same.”

“For Luke?”

“No, silly, for you.” Annabeth gave her a big hug. “Thank you for caring so much.”

“I love you.” Piper gave her a big squeeze back.

“I love you too” Annabeth looked around. “Jason go home?”

“Yeah, I told him I didn’t think he should be here when you get home and that he owes you an apology. Plus, I think his roommate is starting to think he moved out, he’s been spending so much time here. I don’t want him to start letting out Jason’s room.”

Annabeth grinned. “I’ll call him in the morning then.” Piper yawned and Annabeth mirrored her. “Should probably hit the hay, huh?”

“Yeah.” Piper stood up and made her way to her bedroom. Just as she reached the doorway she turned back to her friend.

“Whatever it is, I’m here. Whenever you’re ready, I’m listening.”

“Thanks, babe.” Annabeth smiled sadly and went up the spiral staircase to her borrowed room.

Her mind was exhausted but no matter how long she kept her eyes closed she could not shut her brain off. Her mind kept wandering back to the sunset on the pier. The feel of the wind pulling through her hair. The gulls cawing at the last gasps of sun. The warmth of Percy sitting next to her. The look in his eyes when he told her about his dad. The look of anger when she had told him about her mother.

Somehow, despite all the terrible things that had happened that day, Annabeth couldn’t help but feel a little lighter than yesterday.


	5. Do Something About It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annabeth is feeling guilty over her fight with Piper and Jason, work provides a nice distraction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in this chapter coming out! It may or may not have been to do with getting ahead of myself and writing Chapter 6 first.....
> 
> Enjoy!

Annabeth blinked her eyes open. Last night had been... unexpected. In the darkness she felt the weight of her words on her chest. Piper and Jason hadn’t deserved that. Piper may have said they were all right, but Annabeth knew she was going to have to make it up to her in some way.

Jason.

Light blared from her phone when she picked it up to turn off the alarm. No missed calls. One message from Thalia., a selfie from the stage with the caption ‘wish you were here <3’.

For the first time Annabeth regretted her decision to come to Dalinver Bay. Maybe it would have been better to go west and join the Hunters on tour. She could lose herself in the parties and glamour. But rationally she knew if she had actually gone it would have been a nuisance for Thalia. She could barely keep track of her emotions at the moment and the last thing her friend needed was to deal with Annabeth having a meltdown over her quarter life crisis.

Jason was being a jerk, but he had a point. Annabeth knew that it was her turn to be the bigger person. Opening up her contacts, she scrolled down until she found Sparky. The nickname had come about when they were young, Annabeth fourteen, while Jason was twelve. Annabeth had been staying with the Graces one summer before she and Thalia were heading to camp. Jason had been messing with static, running around shocking everyone he could find.

Brining herself to press call, she listened for the whole dial tone to ring out.

‘Hi, you’ve reached Jason. You know what to do. BEEP.’

Damn it.

Maybe he was in the shower, Annabeth reasoned and dragged herself out of bed. She pulled the curtains open and recoiled from the brightness. Looking around the room she pulled a towel from the floor and went to shower herself.

When she emerged there had been no more calls.

Swallowing her disappointment, she dressed in her shorts from yesterday and looked for a clean top. She caught a glimpse of her side in the mirror and winced, pulling on her t-shirt to cover the memory.

Downstairs, Piper was nowhere to be seen. She had left a note to say ‘Have a nice day, - P x’. It was a clear attempt to assure Annabeth that she was forgiven for yesterday’s outburst, but all it did was make the knot in her stomach feel tighter.

_You really know how to fuck up a good thing, don’t you? _

She shook her head and grabbed her earphones to drown out the voice in her head. Piper had forgiven, she always forgave her. A quick glance at the wall clock told her she had to get a move on or she was going to be late for work.

\- - -

Saturday was more chill than Annabeth had expected. Maybe that was just because of the unbelievable Friday. There was constant motion on the shop floor but there was no point where it was particularly overwhelming. It was nice though; Annabeth wasn’t sure she was ready for another slammed day with the emotional hangover from last night. Each time she went into the storeroom she quickly checked her phone, Jason _still _hadn’t called her back.

The quieter shift also gave her a chance to get to know her weekend colleagues, since it was her first shift without Leo and Grover. It was remarkable how fond of them she had already become, walking to work she was sad that she wouldn’t see the pair of them today. Unfortunately, it seemed that neither Nico nor Clarisse was as friendly as Grover or Leo.

When she had first arrived she had been met with a “You’re late.” From the woman who had to be Clarisse.

“Um,” she checked her watch. “It’s only 8.20, my shift doesn’t start til half past.”

This was apparently not the correct response. Clarisse snarled and narrowed her eyes.

“You should be here at least 15 minutes before a shift to help prep.”

“Really? Sally didn’t say-“

“Lay off, Clarisse.” A guy chipped in, entering behind Annabeth. “Why should we come in and not get paid?”

“It’s just common curtesy Nico.” She snapped. “You might be a lost cause but maybe there is a chance for this… What’s your name again?”

“Abby.”

“This Abby chick.”

“Don’t mind Clarisse,” Nico turned so his back was to her and now facing Annabeth as he tied on his pinafore. “She is not on this planet.”

Clarisse threw a dish cloth at the back of his head as Sally came into the kitchen.

“Well aren’t you all excitable this morning.” She laughed.

“Mornin’ boss,” Clarisse and Nico chorused.

Sally Jackson seemed to bring a breath of fresh air to any room she walked into. Everyone slipped into their roles, Annabeth taking down chairs, Nico writing up the new Specials and Clarisse laying out sauce pots.

When the shop sign flipped a steady stream of customers kept them going. Annabeth had been told that on Saturdays Sally’s family came in so they could spend her lunch break together.

Sally’s husband, Paul, and their daughter arrived at quarter to three. The lunch rush was over, and Sally directed them over to a table next to the brick wall. The little girl was carrying a toy octopus in one hand and colouring pencils in the other. She was the absolute double of her mom, same wavy brown hair and blue eyes. Paul took out a colouring book from the satchel he was carrying and gave it across to her.

Percy arrived twenty minutes later, plainly having come straight from work. He was still dressed in his lifeguard uniform – red shorts, grey vest adorned with a red cross and the unmistakeable LIFE GUARD caption – even pulling on a navy hoodie as he entered the café. He stopped up at the register first and kissed his mom on the cheek as a greeting. He joined the rest of his family, giving his stepfather a hug and ruffling his little sister’s hair. There was too much chatter going on in the room for her to make out what was being said but the little girl looked annoyed and the two men were laughing.

“That’s me taking my lunch.” Sally said, taking off her apron. “Give me a shout if anything happens.”

“Yes ma’am.” Clarisse replied. “Abby, get back to work, you’re staring into space again.”

“Sorry.”

Annabeth served customers with a smile, cleared plates, cleared tables, and filled saucepots while she watched the Jackson-Blofis clan enjoy their weekly lunch. It amazed her how they were so engaged in conversation, the in jokes that they shared and how they all clearly adored the youngest member.

“Hey, Abby,” Nico shouted over. “Can you get Mrs J’s order? They’ve been waiting a while.”

“No problem!” she put down the last sauce pot and walked over to their table.

“Hiya folks! Any thoughts on food?”

“Hey Wi-An-Abby!” Percy began. He was flushed and Sally shot him a strange look. Something told Annabeth that Percy hadn’t shared the story of their nicknames. That thought gave her a warm feeling which was quickly shattered by her own self doubt. She had told Piper and Jason. Should she not have told Piper and Jason? Was this supposed to be an in-joke for the pair of them?

“Wianabby? That’s a strange name. You’re new!” The little girl spoke, it was somewhere between a statement and a question.

“I am indeed. It’s just Abby actually, what’s your name?”

“Estelle.”

“Estelle? That is a beautiful name!” Estelle cracked a smile that reached both ears. No wonder they all doted on her.

“Fanks!” she said.

Sally handed Annabeth a check with everyone’s orders on it. “I do this every week dear, please don’t be offended.”

“Oh, not at all!” she took the check from Sally. “We’ll get it out to you as soon as we can.”

Annabeth took the check to the kitchen window. Now that Sally had stepped out Clarisse had taken over the cooking. Annabeth handed her the check which received a grunt as response. Looking around the café it looked like all of the tables were under control. With a quick glance around the kitchen she stepped into the store to check her phone again. _God damn it Jason, _she thought, _at least acknowledge I’m trying. _

She sighed deeply and stepped back into the kitchen. While waiting for the next order Annabeth jumped on the sink and began washing dishes from the dirty caddy. 

“Order up!” Clarisse called.

Nico and Annabeth split the plates to take over. Annabeth knew that Nico could carry four plates himself but she would rather make a bit of conversation to break up the monotony of dish washing. They got over to the table and dished out everyone’s meals. Percy gave her a big grin and thanked her, Estelle following suit. Estelle’s obvious hero worship of her brother was pretty adorable in Annabeth’s eyes.

Nico headed back to the kitchen and Annabeth turned to follow suit, but Sally caught her before she could. “Abby, Clarisse and Nico seem to have things under control, why don’t you join us for a minute?”

“Uh, sure.” Annabeth smiled and pulled over a chair. She could feel the daggers Clarisse was shooting her, but she could hardly refuse a request from their boss.

“We are having a bit of a dilemma and Percy seems to think you could help us out.”

“Oh?” She raised an eyebrow at Percy who nodded.

“Estelle is in first grade, right?” Percy always seemed to speak with his hands, it was pretty sweet. And totally a normal thing to notice about someone and think was sweet. “And they have this big final ‘end of year project coming up’. Want to tell Abby about it bud?”

“I have to make a dia-dio-dia-something.” Percy mouthed ‘diorama’ to her, Annabeth nodded and tried to hide her amusement at the young girl’s struggle. “Our project has been construction so it has to be on a famous New York building.”

“Oh, cool! That sounds like a pretty neat project.”

“Well, I was hoping you could help us figure out what to make.” Percy added a bit sheepishly, “Y’know, since you are pretty much an architect.”

“An architect?” Sally raised her eyebrows, “That’s impressive! I didn’t know that.”

“Percy is exaggerating.” Annabeth shook her head. “I studied architecture. I’m kind of taking a break from my studies just now.”

“Oh come on, that won’t stop you from helping us tease out our ideas, will it?” Percy nudged her slightly and she cracked.

“Okay, what have you thought about so far? What is the brief?”

Annabeth listened patiently while Estelle explained that she with the help of a family member, in this case her brother, had to create a model of a famous building from New York. They would have to research a few interesting facts about the building and display it alongside the model. Their current pick was the Empire State Building but they weren’t totally convinced.

“Do you really want to do the Empire State Building? Not to be rude, but won’t everyone be doing that? Don’t you want to stand out a bit more?”

Estelle nodded while Percy sat dumbstruck. He looked up at Annabeth and cocked his head to the side. “Did you seriously just tell a six-year-old that her homework idea was basic?” He was trying to look serious but there was no hiding his smirk, or the warmth around his words.

“Hey, your sister does not strike me as someone who would enjoy having the same project as half of the other kids in her class. Am I right Estelle?”

Estelle considered this for a moment then nodded solemnly. “My model has to knock Ms Whitmore’s socks off.”

“Well then, you need to think outside of the box. What is a building the is really cool and striking to look at? Like St John the Devine, or Trinity Church?”

“I wanna make a big, tall one!”

“Okay, big and tall… How about the Waldorf?”

“Hmmm,” Estelle scratched her chin and considered Annabeth’s proposal. “Percy! Show me a picture!” Dutifully her brother took out his phone and brought up pictures of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. “Yes! That’s what we’re gonna do!”

“Woo!” Percy gave her a high five but the same enthusiasm didn’t quite reach his voice.

“Thanks Abby, would not have wanted to deal with the fall out had that not been settle.” Sally said.

“Well good luck! Happy researching!”

Annabeth cleared the table next the them, took tray over to the caddy and began wheeling it to the kitchen, vaguely aware that Percy had followed behind her. She stopped and turned to face him.

“You do realise I don’t know jack about the Waldorf right?” he murmured, glancing back to the contented six year old, sipping on her juice box. Sally used a napkin to wipe some sauce from the side of her mouth. “I think the closest I could do is some info about the Plaza…” he trailed of into laughter as he could see Annabeth was clearly screaming internally. “So now you have to help!”

“What? I couldn’t-“

“Oh, you can and you will! You got me into this mess Wise Girl! I was gonna help her make a lollystick model, write up a couple of facts, no problem. You were the one who swanned in saying she had to ‘think out of the box’! I like the box! The box is comfortable!”

“Pfff! I bet you didn’t particularly care for the box when you were six. Or sixteen if memory serves.”

“Ha ha.” Percy looked at his family again and looked back to Annabeth. “Please Wise Girl, look at that little face. I can’t let her down.”

Annabeth also looked over at the Blofis-Jackson table and then back to Percy. She couldn’t tell if it was Estelle’s cheerful face or Percy’s puppy-dog eyes that did her in, but she found herself agreeing to help.

“Fine-“

“Yes!” Percy shook his fist. “You are the best!”

Colour flooded Annabeth’s cheeks.

“Can I get back to my job now before your mom fires me?” Annabeth glanced over her shoulder to see Clarisse shooting her daggers, _again_. “Or at least before Clarisse kills me.”

“Go right ahead!” Percy waved her off, grinning broadly. “Watch out for Clarisse, that girl is scary.”

“Duly noted.”

The rest of the shift was a bit of a blur. Sally’s family left, with Estelle declaring how excited she was to go play at her friend’s house. She finally met Chiron, a kind local who came to the café every Saturday and normally multiple times throughout the week to read the paper and catch up with Percy about how life was going post-high school. She could understand why Sally would change the set up of the room just to accommodate him, he was a firecracker. His dry wit had her rolling when she brought over his croissant and latte. Finally the last of the customers left and Sally flipped the sign over to once again read ‘Closed’.

Without Grover and Leo, Annabeth wasn’t going to suggest post-work coffee. For all she knew that was a secret kept between the two of them, now three.

Annabeth stepped into the storeroom and pulled out her phone yet again only to be caught by Clarisse who snapped at her.

“You got somewhere to be Blondie?”

“No. No, sorry. Just waiting for a friend to respond to my message.”

“Well then, get your head in the game and we can maybe get out of here at a reasonable hour.”

“Gotcha.” And with that she picked up the pace. She had been warned by multiple people not to get on Clarisse’s bad side. Though she couldn’t imagine the girl doing anything too bad while the big boss was in. Sally seemed blissfully unaware of the tension that had been building between the pair. Annabeth wondered how much of that was willed ignorance, not wanting to have to pick a side in the argument.

Even though it had been a busy shift Annabeth felt much calmer than yesterday. Maybe it was Sally, or maybe just the fact it was the first shift without Leo being there to cause chaos. It was amazing to see how much difference the place was when the weekend staff were in.

When they finally turned the closed sign and got packed up for the day Sally pulled her aside.

“Sorry I haven’t been in much this week. Normally I wouldn’t leave the café for quite so long but I’ve had lots of meetings about my book.”

“Your book?”

“Yes, we have a creative writing group that meets here every Thursday. I had been showing extracts from the book I have worked on for a long time and then finally the lovely folks there convenced me I should try to get it published! Nearly two years later and here we are, it’s coming out at the beginning of July!”

“Wow, Sally! That’s amazing!”

“Thank you,” her smile was infectious. “You should come along some time. Or even if you want to work the writing shift on Thursday?”

“That would be great!”

Nico turned around from the sink where he had been drying dishes.

“That’s my shift.” His words were flat but Annabeth could sense anger behind them. “You said I could work the writing shifts from now on.”

“You can both work it,” Sally placated. “Abby needs to be trained on everything. What if you were to call in sick?”

Nico opened his mouth to protest and then shut it again. _How strange to be that protective over a shift, _she thought.

“Anyway,” Sally continued. “I wanted to hear about how your first week has been.”

Annabeth told her she was really happy - which she was at work - and thanked her again for the opportunity.

“Oh don’t be silly,” Sally laughed. “I’m not asking for you to stroke my ego. If there is anything I can do to make things simpler please just say.”

“Will do Sally.”

“Well then, feel like you are starting to settle in to Dalinver Bay?”

It was a simple question really, but one Annabeth hadn’t given much thought to. It had been nine days since she had finally gotten up the courage to change her life. In that time, she had reunited with two of her best friends and managed to fall out with them. She had gotten a new job and begun to make some new friends in her co-workers. Well, with Grover and Leo at least. The three of them had gotten on like a house on fire during the three weekday shifts she had worked. Annabeth wondered if she could count Percy as a friend. She was apprehensive to do so. Every time she had been around him, she seemed to make a total fool of herself. Not only that but there was something about him that made her drop her guard and that didn’t sit well with Annabeth. _It must be the surfer vibe _she thought.

“Well?” Sally asked again, Annabeth was mortified when she realised that she never answered Sally’s question.

“Yes,” she answered honestly. “It’s nice, quiet. Exactly what I need right now.”

“That’s great!” Sally beamed. “Oh, before I forget,” She pointed over to the fridge. “Please take some baked goodies away with you. Think of it as a ‘I survived my first week!’ treat.”

Annabeth nodded and grinned at her. When she collected her handbag at the end of the day she packed in some of the banana bread, knowing it was Jason’s favourite. She said her goodbyes to her co-workers, Clarisse gave a grunt and Nico’s was not much better. _I guess I need to work on my weekend charms._ But Clarisse and Nico were not her biggest concerns. She picked up her phone again and there were still no messages.

If Jason wasn’t going to answer her calls, then she was going to do something about it. 


	6. She Would Always Be His

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annabeth goes to confront Jason and gets more than she bargained for...

Geographically, Jason lived closer to the Cerulean café than Piper did, but the route was unfamiliar so it took Annabeth slightly longer to get there than it would have taken her to walk home.

He had not been living in the building long, only moving in after his first year at Olympia University, the town’s college. She knew that Jason would never admit it, but she was pretty certain that most of the reason why he moved out here was because he missed Thalia. She had moved out east a few years before to start at the university herself. Annabeth couldn’t even remember what Thalia had been studying, academics had never been her priority, all she spoke about was the band she had formed. Jason was so different though, he cared deeply about his education and staying out of the spotlight. Their mom had shown him the dangers of getting wrapped up in the Hollywood bubble.

But the history programme had a stellar reputation so maybe she was just being overly sentimental.

The apartment building itself was not much to look at, tall and slightly out of place as a granite structure surrounded by beachy cottages. She arrived at the blue front door just as someone else was coming out so didn’t have to worry about being buzzed up. As she climbed up to the third floor her heart began to race. She knew that she had been in the wrong jumping down Jason’s throat yesterday, but he had also not shown himself in the best light, so the fact he was ignoring her messages and calls was getting her guard up.

She stopped outside the door to his apartment. Now or never.

She knocked out a rhythmic pattern.

There was no answer.

“Jason!” She knocked again. “Jason, open up! We need to talk.” She continued to beat against the door. “I know you are in there Jason.”

She waited a moment and there was still no answer.

“Jason Grace! If you do not open this door. I swear I will knock it down!”

Just as she was about to give up and admit that Jason wasn’t home, she saw a shadow move under the door.

“You coward! You fucking coward!” Annabeth hammered the door again, suddenly fuelled by an intense rage. “You too afraid to come out here and face me?!”

She slammed herself into the door as someone opened it from the other side. Her momentum kept her going and she found herself on the floor, hitting her head sharply off of the hardwood floors.

“Oh my god, are you okay?”

“I’m alright,” she sat up rubbing her head. That was definitely going to leave a mark. “God damn it man, why couldn’t you just-“ she blinked her eyes, realising the man she was looking at wasn’t Jason. Not blonde. Still muscular, and he was tall. Her attention was caught by a headphone dangling from one ear and she could hear music blaring from them. He looked alarmed; those unmistakeable eyes full of concern. “Seaweed Brain? What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing, considering you were trying to break into my apartment.” Percy cocked his head to the side and pulled out the other earphone. He stretched out his hand, just as he had done last night. This time though Annabeth didn’t accept it and instead pulled herself to her feet, still massaging the part of her head that had been bashed.

“You’re Jason’s roommate!?”

“Yeah, we’ve been living together since just after Christmas. We had a biology class together freshman year.” Percy said. “How do you know him?”

“We go way back. I’ve been friends with his sister since we went to summer camp together as kids. Introduced the boy to the love of his life.”

“Ah, so it’s you I have to thank for the drunken speeches about ‘Actual Goddess Piper McClean’.”

“I mean I myself have made many drunken speeches about Actual Goddess Piper McClean so can’t say I’m surprised.” She laughed.

“Jason isn’t home, by the way. I think his phone is busted, he said something earlier about not being able to receive calls.”

“Oh.” Annabeth felt her heartrate rising. “So, you heard all that, huh?” Her cheeks could fry an egg, she was certain of it.

Percy shrugged but Annabeth was pretty sure he was suppressing a smirk. “Just the banging, my music was pretty loud.” He was staring at her head in a way that made her think a bruise was starting to show. “Do you want to sit down? I’ll get some ice or something for your head.”

“I’m sure I’ll be fine,” She tried to wave him off. “I should probably go try find Jason.”

“You do know I’m a lifeguard, right?” Percy raised an eyebrow at her, and Annabeth nodded. “Well there is no way I’m letting you leave here until I am sure you aren’t concussed.”

“But-“

“No buts! Except yours, on that couch. Now.” Annabeth complied without further complaint. Maybe she was concussed…

Percy went to the kitchen area to check the freezer and Annabeth took a moment to take stock of her surroundings. It had been about a year since she had last visited Jason at his apartment. Normally if they were meeting in the Bay everyone would go to Thalia and Piper’s, more often though they would come into the city to see her since it was easy enough. The place had changed a lot since then, the couch she was on was new and felt pretty sturdy, unlike the piece of garbage Jason claimed was ‘well loved’. The addition of a roommate brought about new clutter; a lot of action movies took place of pride on the bookshelf, an intricately carved shield now hung on the wall opposite and there was a picture of Jason and Percy having some kind of stand-off sat on the ledge in front of the TV. She couldn’t get a good view of the shield from here, but the patterns inscribed on the bronze seemed to tell a story.

“How’s your head?” Percy asked as he came back over. He was holding something, Annabeth blinked. “Hope you like peas.” He laid the impromptu icepack on her head, brushing a bit of hair out of her face as he did so.

Annabeth flinched.

Those damn eyes, they never missed a beat. Percy took a half step back and clawed at his left wrist with his now free hand. Annabeth hoped that he would buy her playing it off like it was just the cold that caught her off guard, but his reaction showed the opposite.

“Nice picture.” She pointed at the photo she had just been staring at. Percy picked it up and took it over.

“Oh this?” Percy laughed. “Piper took it just before the Christmas Tug of War tourney. Swim Team versus track. We trounced them. I swear they must have spent half of the last season training to beat us at camp.”

“Oh damn!” the memory of Jason’s photo hit her like a brick. “Jason showed me a photo of you from last week! The swim team all being beat!”

“Of course he did.” Percy gave a heavy sigh and mumbled something under his breath that Annabeth couldn’t make out beyond the word ‘impression’. With a small head tilt he asked, “So, can I check the damage?”

Annabeth lifted off the bag of peas in response.

“I’m going to touch your head now, is that okay?”

“Y-yes” she stuttered.

Percy began examining her head, asking her to look in certain directions so he could get a better view. It struck her that she couldn’t remember the last time someone actually asked her permission to touch her. He gently poked around what she was certain was the outline of a bruise. She winced as he lightly tapped the centre causing Percy to grimace and apologise.

“You aren’t working tomorrow right?”

“No, today was shift four.”

“Good,” Percy nodded. “I don’t think you need to go to the doctor but a day off your feet would probably be a good thing. And ask a friend to stay with you to check you don’t begin forgetting things or become irritable. Those are signs that I would call actual medical help for.”

“Maybe you aren’t such a Seaweed Brain after all.”

“Well you certainly don’t seem to be as wise as I first thought.” Annabeth stuck her tongue out at him but Percy just laughed and told her to put the ice back on. “So, was Jason the friend you were talking about at the pier then? Not looking to pry, just want to make sure you’ll have someone waiting at your apartment.”

“Yes, well it’s a bit more complicated than that.” Annabeth began. “But yeah, big argument with Jason and Piper. Me and Pipes talked things through last night, but Jason has been dodging my calls. Or so I thought. I’ll have to see what’s in store when I see him.”

“Let’s get you home then. Most likely he’s at your place. It’s actually amazing that I didn’t know where Piper lived until now considering how much time Jason spends there.” Annabeth tried to say she was perfectly fine to walk alone but Percy wasn’t having any of it. “No way am I letting you go off alone, faint in the middle of the street and get run over. Jason would never forgive me to say the least.”

Annabeth scoffed but didn’t comment. Their fight hadn’t even been big, but Annabeth hadn’t seen Jason that angry since they were teenagers. He always had been very defensive of Piper. When you are the son of a ‘Fallen from Grace’ actress dating the daughter of a global superstar, plenty of people seem to think they have the right to your private life. The four years they had been dating Annabeth had lost track of how many magazine articles had been written about ‘Jasper’, how many ‘#couplegoals’ lists they made but most of all how many times they had been hounded by paparazzi. They had even once been trending nationwide when they were spotted at some music award show dancing to the Hunters of Artemis. People loved seeing the Grace siblings support each other. Nobody seemed to care that neither Piper or Jason wanted anything to do with the spotlight. Piper would always joke that she went into PR because it was all she knew, growing up as ‘Tristan McLean’s daughter’. Annabeth figured that after spending so long constantly having to protect your partner that someone might be a little defensive, but that didn’t excuse the way he spoke to her about things he knew nothing about.

_Only because you won’t tell him. _That damned voice chided. _Shut up. _Weak retort but she was fighting her internal monologue, so it didn’t really matter.

Annabeth left the bag of peas on the counter and followed Percy out to the carpark.

“Good thing I’m borrowing the Prius,” Percy said as he unlocked the door and the pair got in.

“I already said you don’t have to take me home. I’m starting to think you might be stalking me Percy Jackson.” The last sentence escaped before she could catch herself.

Percy laughed but he turned his face away “Hey, you were the one who turned up on my doorstep remember.” He slowed the car as they reached what was probably the only traffic light in town. “I actually have to pick Estelle up soon, so this works out well timing wise.”

“Mhm that’s what they all say…” Annabeth chuckled to herself, “Estelle did say she was going to a friend’s house earlier.”

“Yeah, my mom is so busy with her book releasing soon. Normally I take the squirt on Saturdays to give her a bit of space after work but been pretty caught up in practice lately.”

“That’s really kind of you Percy.”

“Nah, it’s great for me. Get to spend time with my sister, helps mom and Paul out. Really a win-win situation.”

Annabeth was amazed at how much Percy lit up when he spoke about his family. She barely spoke to her half-brothers. Sometimes she couldn’t even tell them apart.

“So is Estelle your only sibling then?”

“Nope,” Percy continued to beam. “I’ve also got a little brother on my dad’s side, Tyson. Poseidon told me about him when we had our first supervised visit. Didn’t want to keep any secrets. But yeah, told me from the get go that he and Tyson’s mom weren’t together for very long. I met Tyson for the first time when I was thirteen. He’s a couple years younger but a gentle giant, currently doing a fancy apprenticeship with a mechanic our dad deals with.”

“That’s pretty cool.”

“Oh hell yeah, he’s amazing. Did you see the shield on the living room wall? He made that for my 21st birthday. It was sick.”

“Wow!” Annabeth thought back to the strange carvings that decorated the shield. She wondered if they were of Percy and Tyson.

The journey did not take long, especially since Percy didn’t seem to be overly worried about the New York State speed limit. This made Annabeth nervous, mainly because she worried that he was going to be late to collect his sister. Percy quizzed her on some of the local information he had told her last night while Annabeth gave directions. When they stopped outside of the apartment, she was a little surprised when Percy got out of the car.

“Thanks for the ride.” She smiled, “I really appreciate it.”

“Anytime,” He flashed that lopsided grin at her. “Hopefully next time there will be less head injuries.”

“Hopefully.” She chuckled in agreement.

Percy gestured to the door. “So, I’m assuming you didn’t text Piper to say we were coming back.” She had not. “That’s what I thought. I want to tell her signs she needs to look out for to make sure you haven’t turned your brain to mush.”

“Thanks.” She said flatly.

“You’re welcome!” He beamed.

Annabeth opened her door and let Percy in behind her. She called out to her roommate who shouted back that they were in the kitchen. Annabeth followed the voice and Percy followed Annabeth.

They found Piper and Jason sat at the breakfast bar, each with a mug in front of them. There was tension in the air already. Jason was staring pretty intensely at his coffee.

“Percy?” Piper was taken aback. Jason looked up sharply and his expression mirrored Piper’s confusion “What are you doing here? Do you guys know each other.”

“Yeah, Annabeth just started working at my mom’s café. Had no idea that she was Jason’s friend until she showed up at our place looking for him.”

“Ah, so that’s why Cerulean café sounded familiar.” Jason nodded, still not making eye contact with Annabeth. “Can’t believe I forgot that’s your mom’s place.”

“Me neither, you jerk!” Percy threw his hand to his heart in mock offense and the pair laughed. “Anyway, I’m here to give you the run down for our patient here.” Percy pointed his thumb at Annabeth. “I know you said your friend was coming to town but you forgot to mention she has a thing for knocking down doors.”

“Hey!” Annabeth piped up.

“Well, did you or did you not try to break down my front door?”

“… Hey rescinded…”

“Thank you. Anyway, Wise Girl over here tried to knock down our door because some jerk is dodging her calls. Wonder what that could be about.” Jason adverted his eye again. “Long story short, I opened the door and she bashed her head real good off of the tiles. At the moment she seems to be okay, but you’d better keep an eye out to check for concussion symptoms. Any memory loss, dizziness, you know, that kind of thing.”

“Duly noted.” Piper nodded her head and began examining Annabeth’s skull. “Thanks Percy.”

“No problem.” 

Silence filled the room. Jason was still very interested in the contents of his coffee cup. Piper seemed to be trying to discreetly nudge him under the table. Annabeth rubbed her bruise and winced again while Percy hung awkwardly in the doorframe, unsure of whether to stay or go.

The stillness was broken when Percy’s phone beeped loudly. He whipped it out and read the message.

“That’s Lana’s mom telling me Estelle is ready to go. Mind if I use your restroom quickly?”

“Not at all,” Piper gestured along the hall and gave him instructions on where to go.

Then the silence was back. Somehow more painful than before. Piper cleared her throat and shot Jason a _look. _Annabeth put her handbag onto the counter and withdrew the goody bag she had been sent away with by Sally.

“Here,” she placed it in the middle of the breakfast bar. “Sally gave me treats away as a gift. I took banana bread.”

“Aw man.” Jason shook his head and looked sadly at the bag. “You can’t give me banana bread when I’ve been an ass.”

“Well then I would never get to give you banana bread.”

Jason scoffed and finally looked at Annabeth. “I’m not joking Annabeth. I did something I’m not proud of.”

Annabeth bit her lip. “What was that?”

Jason sighed deeply and looked to Piper for something. Support? Assurance? A scolding?

“I wasn’t going to tell you,” he began and then stopped before shaking his head. “I’m being a coward.” He looked her in the eye and finally confessed. “Luke has been calling me pretty much daily since you arrived here. At first, I didn’t get his call because my phone was playing up while I was at the training retreat. And today I was mad at you and I was impatient.” Annabeth felt the colour drain from her face. “So, I took the call.”

“Wow, Jason.” Annabeth blinked at him. It was like emotional whiplash. Betrayal, anger, disgust. “I thought… I thought you had my back.”

“I do have your back. Annabeth you are like a sister to me. I will always have your back. I know I was stupid. I know that whatever the fuck happened wasn’t good and that you will tell us when you feel ready, but I was frustrated, and I thought maybe if I heard what Luke had to say I could help. I also figured you would want to know what he said so I used Piper’s phone to record it.”

“Do you want to hear?” Piper asked tentatively. Annabeth opened her mouth to answer, unsure of what was going to come out. Her thought process was interrupted by the front door closing. In a panic she wondered how much Percy had heard. But now was not the time for that worry.

“Play it.”

No one spoke as Piper got up the voice memo on her phone. Jason rubbed his thumb back and forth over his hand. Annabeth just stared at the device in Piper’s.

“Hey there Jace,”

God, Annabeth could picture him as his caramel voice came out of the phone. Perfect Luke Castellan. Blonde haired, blue-eyed, All-American. He was probably pacing around in front of the living room window, the way he did when he was nervous. In her mind that room was still full of broken glass and torn upholstery.

_“Hi Luke,” Jason had replied fairly brightly. _

_“You been dodging my calls or something?” _He laughed but there was an ice behind it. One she knew all too well.

_“What? Not at all, I’ve just got back from a training retreat, my phone did not love the mountains. Piper is gonna be home any minute.”_

_“Oh don’t worry, this won’t take long.”_

There was a brief silence.

_“I’m really sorry to hear about you and Annabeth.”_

_“Thanks, man.” _Luke had sighed._ “That’s kinda why I’m calling. Has she said anything to you at all about what happened?”_

_“Nope. I just got a message from Thals to say that you guys had split up. What happened?”_

When he next spoke Annabeth could hear a difference in his voice. It wouldn’t be noticeable to anyone who didn’t know him as well as she did.

_“Jason, please. If Annabeth calls you, or Piper. Please, you have to call me. She is not well.”_

_ “Not well?”_

_“I’m really worried. I think she is losing her grip. She came home and then drops on me out of the blue that she has decided to drop out of school and that we are over, she doesn’t want to see me again. I mean, I knew things hadn’t been right with her, she was crying all of the time. It got to the point where she wouldn’t leave the house. I was pretty much having to look after her, y’know?”_

So that was how he was going to play it. Annabeth was crazy.

Annabeth’s knuckles were white. She could feel her nails biting into the palms of her hands. Her whole body felt like it was vibrating.

_“That’s… That’s awful Luke. I, uh, had no idea she had been struggling. Why hasn’t she reached out?”_

_“I have no idea. You know my girl though, she’s got to carry the whole world on her shoulders.”_

My girl.

His girl.

Annabeth thought she was going to be sick.

_“Ha. Yeah. Well if I hear anything I will hit you up. To be honest you’d probably be better trying Thalia. Maybe she wanted to try out the whole Rockstar lifestyle for a bit of a change.”_

_“You’re maybe right… Well, thanks Jason. Speak soon.” _

Piper closed the app. Annabeth was aware for the first time since she hit play that all eyes were on her.

That bastard. That absolute bastard.

“Annabe-“ Piper began but Annabeth cut her off completely.

“So you think I’m crazy?” She looked back and forth between the two of them, expecting them to be wearing worry but instead she was met with offended looks.

“Of course not.” Jason said sharply. “Whatever happened, and I am not asking you to tell me what it was, but Luke knows that he has fucked up big time. Otherwise he would have called Thalia, not me.”

The boy had a point.

“Annabeth, I have been living with you for nearly two weeks, Jason’s been here all week. You are clearly not crazy.” Piper placed a hand on her shoulder. “If anything, I would say you seem more like yourself than you have done in a really long time.” Annabeth felt the tears welling up in her eyes but refused to let them fall. She had cried too much in the last two weeks. She had cried too much in the past year. She refused to let herself cry again, not in this moment.

“I’m sorry, Jason.” She finally said. “For yesterday. I was angry at Luke and I took it out on you both.”

“Are you serious?” Jason was taken aback. “You’re sorry? Annabeth I was an absolute ass to you and then took a call from our biggest enemy. I’m the one who needs to be grovelling.”

“How about we just split this banana bread and call it even?”

“Deal.” 

Piper squealed in glee and wrapped her arms around each of their necks, kissing them both on the temple. She then went to get a couple of small plates for them to split up Annabeth’s cakes. Piper put the kettle back on to make some tea and the trio caught up about their days. About the random coincidence that Percy was Jason’s roommate and Annabeth’s kind of co-worker.

That night they ordered in take out and watched some trashy comedies on Netflix. Annabeth smiled and laughed with the pair, but she couldn’t shake the awful feeling pulling in her gut. Luke called Jason. What if he called back? Would he call Piper? What if one of them slipped up and told him she was here? Surely he would call Thalia after what Jason said. What if Thalia went off at him? What if she told him where she was?

All this and more raced through her had when she was lying in her bed at the end of the night.

My girl.

That’s what he had said.

No matter what she did, no matter where she went. It didn’t matter that she changed her name.

She was his. She would always be his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed the latest instalment! Literally took so long to post chapter 5 because I was too busy writing this one haha! Trying to get back on to posting on Tuesdays :)


	7. Playing in the Background

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annabeth checks out. More is revealed about what happened in New York and we get an insight into the mind of Percy Jackson.

Time stood still.

Annabeth lay in her bed staring at the ceiling. The lights were off, curtains closed, nothing from the outside allowed in.

She had been so naïve.

A little part of her had thought that by getting out of the city it would all be over. No more sleepless nights, no more flinching every time someone banged a door.

There was a knock at the door now, it had taken her a moment to realise it hadn’t just been in her head.

Piper stuck her head in, but Annabeth didn’t look away from where her eyes were fixed.

“Morning,” Piper’s tone was bright, not matching the cautious pace of her words. “Want some breakfast?”

“I’m good.” Annabeth did not move her eyes from the spot of the ceiling. “Thanks.”

“Oh, okay.” A silence hung in the air, long enough for Annabeth to think Piper had left so she flinched when Piper continued. “Jason brought bagels, he got in like half an hour ago. We are here if you need us. Downstairs. Will be here all day. Jason too.”

“Thanks Pipes.”

The soft shuffling told Annabeth that Piper actually had left this time. Her thoughts returned, as they usually did, to Luke. What was he doing? Had he called Thalia yet? Had he called her mother? That thought terrified her more than anything. Their last conversation had been… unpleasant, to say the least.

She could at least take solace that she didn’t have work today. Originally, she had planned to go for a run and investigate the light house a bit more. Next on the agenda had been to check out the library, so she could see if there were any local writings on it to compare with notes she had made about Montauk.

Now Annabeth couldn’t really see herself moving from this bed.

She hated this. She hated feeling this helpless. Hated knowing that Piper and Jason were waiting for her to fall apart. Hated waiting for another round of blows from her mother telling her how disappointed she was.

She was useless.

Every good thing in her life she somehow managed to fuck up.

So she just went back to sleep.

\- - -

**February.**

When Piper had called Annabeth asking to spend the weekend before Valentines in the city, Luke had said no. So when she turned up on the Friday evening, looking a million bucks, with her hair curled to perfection and wearing a dazzling gold dress, it was a pleasant surprise with a back taste of dread. But Annabeth could deal with the fall out on Monday, she was too happy to see Piper to care.

“Piper! What are you doing here!”

“Surprise!” Piper wrapped her arms around her friend. “How are you? How are things? It feels like forever!”

“You know me, same old, same old.”

There was something about Piper that never failed to make Annabeth feel special. More importantly, she reminded Annabeth that she was twenty-three, she was too young to feel the weight of the world on her shoulders. That day, she arrived at the door with her arms outstretched and holding Annabeth’s favourite chocolates, claiming them to be a ‘sorry I ambushed your weekend’ gift. Piper remembered everything, you could make a passing comment about a necklace from a shop window and three months later would be handed it for your birthday. The first present she had ever given Jason was a terrarium made up of plants from his hometown in California. Sometimes she could get a little carried away…

Luke had come through from the bedroom when he heard the squealing. Annabeth saw the flash of fury across his face before he was able to put his charming mask on.

Luke did not care for Piper.

“Piper?” that caramel voice would never betray his distrust. “How unexpected!” His eyes flickered across to Annabeth. “Did Annabeth not tell you we couldn’t manage this weekend?”

“Oh, hi Luke.” Piper was used to glossing over social slip ups with that million dollar smile. “She did say but it’s been so long since our schedules lined up, so I thought we’d just chance to see if you were in. And here you are!”

Jason came in through the doorway, dressed just as smartly in a midnight blue suit. He had been taking a call when Piper had zipped upstairs. He shook his head at her antics and genuinely apologized to the pair of them, earning a nudge from the fiery brunette. Luke and Jason had been friends since Annabeth took him along to a camp friend meetup the summer she turned eighteen.

“I know you guys have plans but she insisted.” Jason sighed and Luke laughed, muttering something along the lines of ‘of course she did’ under his breath.

“Well you are here now, so let’s make the most of it.”

“I actually have dinner reservations that were booked for a work thing. Me and Jason were going to take advantage but the table of booked for four, so I thought we’d give you guys a shout. Anybody in the mood for fancy Italian food we will feel pretentious for ordering” she took a breath “but ultimately enjoy because the table is fully funded by a corporation that is fuelled by underpaid workers?”

Annabeth looked to Luke. He was already as angry as he would show in public. She tilted her head to the side, asking if this was allowed. He nodded slightly.

“Well, I’m always down for free food!” Annabeth gave a thumbs up. “Let me change, somehow I don’t think I’m getting into any restaurant wearing a ripped, paint covered t-shirt and sweats.”

Hurriedly, she changed into a simple, floral dress. Luke had bought it for her last birthday. Checking her reflection in the mirror she wasn’t satisfied with her appearance – her hair was pulled up into a messy bun, far from chic, her dress was an awkward length, making her question if she should cover up more with a cardigan and some pantyhose – but before she could make any more changes Piper came in to drag her out.

The restaurant wasn’t far so the four of them walked over. That was something Annabeth had always loved about New York, everyone walked. It gave her a chance to appreciate the landscape – how impossibly tall the buildings seemed when you looked up at them. But she had already begun to see these towering buildings as a trap where she had once seen a testament to human endeavour.

As they strolled, Piper and Annabeth began catching up. Both of them were focusing on midterms. Piper chatted about how the PR course she was taking was the world’s most expensive networking seminar. The fact she had pretty much an unlimited access to Hollywood’s elite should make her exempt from exams. Both knew she was taking the piss, Piper had always strived to not rely on her father’s success. Luke chuckled darkly.

Annabeth nattered away about a structural concept she was really passionate about for her thesis. Luke raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

Piper stopped walking. “What?”

“What do you mean, what?” Luke asked innocently.

“I mean why the face?”

“There was no face.” He dug his heels in. “I just thought it was a little… contrived.”

Annabeth stopped talking. Piper looked about ready to punch him.

“Well,” Jason interjected trying to break the awkwardness that had arisen. “We’re here!”

Annabeth couldn’t say she was surprised by Luke’s comment. He had been doing this for a while now, making digs at things -or people- she loved. Making her feel stupid for things she was passionate about. But that he had done it in front of Piper and Jason? That was unexpected. He was clearly angrier than she had originally thought.

Luke must have realised how damaging his comment had been to Piper’s perception of him, as he spent the majority of the evening with the charm turned up to eleven. It had been a long time since Annabeth had seen him like this, entertaining people was his element. He regaled them with stories from work involving mishaps in the label printers causing a large shipment of body glitter to be sent to an old folk’s home rather than the pole dancing studio which was the intended recipient.

Luke had worked at his dad’s shipping company since he was eighteen. The whole time he was at college he never dropped below a thirty-hour week on top of his studies, Hermes had said it would build character. Now, at age twenty-nine, he had his degree and a managerial position that felt like the weight of the world was resting on his shoulders. Annabeth wasn’t so sure that _character _was what had been built.

The end of the meal brought about the ‘who’s paying?’ dance that Annabeth always dreaded. She, Piper and Jason were all still students and would happily split the bill by just paying for what they ordered, Luke found this to be gauche. Luke would often offer to pay for everyone, but Annabeth knew he couldn’t afford it and it would lead to uncomfortable arguments by the end of the month. Sometimes Piper would sneak up and pay for them all on her dad’s black card, but this would never sit very well either, Luke seemed to take it as a personal affront.

But Annabeth was forgetting that the meal was paid for in advance and breathed a sigh of relief when the waiter took over a plate with just mints on it. She could have sworn that she saw Piper slip something to the server when she went to the ladies’ room twenty minutes before though.

That evening was filled with more laughter than Annabeth could remember. The three of them relived previous nights, skulking old stomping grounds, sharing new stories about annoying co-workers and shenanigans from day to day routine. They recounted old stories they had all heard ten times before but it didn’t matter because it was enough to just be sharing one another’s company. Jason told them about how he was hoping to get a roommate to help keep costs down and they all nodded empathetically. It was almost enough to make Annabeth forget what lay ahead of her.

When they went for pancakes the next morning, Piper asked her if she was feeling okay, since she looked a little pale. She made a joke about a lack of sleep and the pair let it go. Nether noticed how she winced when they hugged her as a greeting. Neither noticed her slight limp as she walked through the door.

But as she had said last night, it was the same old, same old. Everything was fine.

\- - -

Something was up with Annabeth. Percy knew it the moment he walked into the Cerulean Café.

He had not had the best morning at work. Some ridiculous preteens thought they were immortal and had been backflipping off of the pier. The pier wasn’t even his jurisdiction, but he couldn’t let the stupid kids end up with a broken arm. So of course his supervisor chose this moment to check up on him and he was reprimanded for abandoning his post. Percy groaned and tried to shake off the memory. It was too close to summer for him to piss off the boss, he needed his job. While he loved helping out at the café, he would never do it for a wage, always just to help out his mom.

When he entered the café after his shift, he was more tired than he should have been for half three on a Wednesday. Annabeth was behind the register, taking someone’s order, looking at it like she had never seen a piece of technology in her life. Grover had swooped in to finish taking the order as Annabeth excused herself to go into the stock room. Nico was washing the dishes, rolling his eyes at her. _Little shit, _Percy thought, _h_e needs _to remember his manners_.

Percy sat himself at a table and watched the door absentmindedly. He had no clue as to why he was so concerned about Annabeth Chase. She was just another one of his mom’s employees. He barely knew her. Besides, it wasn’t like he had spent the last four days obsessing over the snippet of a voicemail he caught his roommate playing for her. He certainly hadn’t danced around the subject when Jason had gotten home late Saturday night. Or tried to facebook stalk the name Luke through Jason’s page.

The boy knew too many Lukes.

It was true though, Annabeth hadn’t been far from his thoughts for the past four days. There had been something about the atmosphere in the flat when he was leaving that didn’t sit right with him. The last time he had seen Jason looking so serious was when Leo told him the story of how he had come to work at the café. He had wanted to call her to ask about ideas for Estelle’s project as well, but it didn’t seem like the right time given how she had sounded as he was leaving on Saturday night. He wanted to see her in person first.

When she eventually emerged from the storeroom he looked for signs of crying, but there were no red eyes, no drip marks on her t-shirt. Instead, she wore a wide smile that didn’t quite meet her eyes, she bustled between tables checking on customers. It was almost as though she was on auto-pilot.

“What are you doing here?” she asked when she passed his table.

“Well that’s a strange way to greet a paying customer…” he joked, but it was lost on her. Suddenly she was scarlet and all apologies.

“Sorry, sorry.” She looked everywhere but his face. “I don’t know what I was thinking, I just didn’t expect to see you since we aren’t busy. I’m just going to go.” She began to turn around and before he could stop himself Percy made the whole situation worse.

“Aren’t you going to take my order?”

“Right.” She spun on her heel back towards him. “Order. Of course.” She pulled out her notepad and plastered the smile back on her face, looking even more false than before. “A double filter coffee with milk on the side?”

“Please,” he smiled softly, hoping to ease her embarrassment. “Hey Wise Girl, you okay?”

The mask stayed in place “Yup. Everything is fine. I’ll be back with your coffee asap.”

Percy wasn’t going to press the issue, but Annabeth was off like a shot anyway. How was she to know that he wasn’t some asshole who would tease her relentlessly? He made a mental note to ask Grover how she had been the past few days.

When his coffee arrived, it was Nico who took it over.

“Hey Nico,” Percy smiled, partially at seeing his friend, but mainly because he was soon to have that sweet, sweet caffeine coursing through his veins. “What you doing working a Wednesday?”

“Money. Grover’s been doing admin stuff so Sally got me to help out on the floor.” He sighed and looked at the kitchen. “Good thing too, because New Girl is useless.”

“Useless?” Percy asked and Nico nodded. “I was here on Friday and Saturday, I mean you saw her! I thought she held her own pretty well. She is probably just having an off day. You need to have more faith in people.”

“Hmph.” Nico handed him the coffee. “If you say so. Next mug she breaks _you _can sweep up.”

“Noted.”

Percy tried not to feel too annoyed at Nico’s harshness. It was coming up for the anniversary, so he had to cut the boy a bit of slack. Nico had been acting cagey himself since he’d had called last Friday. He hated being vulnerable in front of anyone, even Percy. But he also knew that Percy was the only person close to understanding. Also, if things got to be anywhere as bad as they had done two years ago, he needed someone to talk him back from the edge. And Percy owed him so much more than he could ever repay.

Percy pulled out his revision notes and flipped through them as he drank his coffee. Not that he could really make any sense of his scribbles now. During the lecture he had tried so hard to focus in, knowing that the contents were going to come up on the final, but the words were swimming all over the page. As long as he could remember he was fascinated by the ocean, leading to wanting to become a marine biologist. If only it weren’t for the amount of research and studying you had to do, Percy was sure he would be world-class by now. About an hour in he sighed and dropped the notebook onto the table, followed quickly by his head.

“Ugh. I hate my stupid brain.”

He felt a sympathetic tap on his shoulder. He looked up and was strangely disappointed to see Grover standing above him.

“You got this bud. You kick dyslexic ass every day!”

“You better not try to kick my ass, you know I could floor you.” Leo chipped in as he was clearing a tray from an empty table.

“You know what I meant.” Grover threw his hands into the air. 

Percy looked around the room to see he was the last customer. It was nearly four so they must have been looking to close up early. Annabeth was sweeping the floor as Nico prepare a mop bucket.

“Got your admin stuff sorted?”

“Yes. I hate paperwork. Your mom makes all this look so easy. How the hell did she write a novel on top of all this?”

“Because she is the greatest human to ever exist.”

“Fair.” Grover smiled. “Now if you are done studying, can I clear your tray. Really want to get out of here sharp. Bad vibe today.”

“Oh?” Percy asked, looking between the two most likely sources of vibes.

“Yeah. Nico has been a whole new level of grouchy today. And I have no idea where Abby’s head is at. You’d think she had never made a cup of coffee before.”

“I’ll talk to her- them. I’ll talk to them.” Percy ignored the look Grover was shooting. He was just doing Grover a favour. He knew Grover hated confrontation, and besides Percy was pretty much the only person Nico would listen to besides Sally.

Percy packed his textbook and notes into his backpack and placed it on the chair. He looked to Nico and Annabeth, deciding who to approach first. The conversation would definitely be harder with Nico so he opted for the latter.

By the time he approached Annabeth she was throwing out what had been caught by her dustpan and Nico was close by, ready to begin mopping. Leo was singing loudly and off-key as he washed the dishes.

“Hey,” he started. “You okay?”

“I said I was fine, I’m fine.” Oh. Maybe Nico would not be the harder conversation after all.

“Right.” Oh god he was going to have to be bad cop. “Well if breaking 3 mugs is a fine day, I would hate to see a bad one. Abby if something is wrong then that is fine. We can all have off days. Life is so much bigger than this place. But if you are going to be rude to your co-workers and break stuff and try to pass it off like it is nothing then that is where we are going to have a problem.”

Annabeth pursed her lips tightly at the use of her name. She considered what Percy said before answering.

“I’m sorry.” She looked like she meant it. “I have got a lot on my plate at the moment. I came in this morning and-“ her eyes flashed to Nico “certain people were being awkward for no reason and it just threw me off. Tomorrow will be better I promise. I know how important the CW shift is to Sally, I won’t let her down.”

Leo stopped singing and laid down the dish he was washing. Before Percy could speak Leo had wrapped one arm around Nico’s neck and was ruffling his hair with the other.

“So that’s why you’ve been such a raging dick all day!” He wore the special mischievous grin saved for teasing friends about their love lives. “You’re annoyed Abby is going to steal your boyfriend!”

It clicked for Percy, of course Nico was going to be agitated. He loved his Thursday night shift.

“Get off,” Nico grumbled. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Ohhhh but you dooooooo!” Leo sang as he dodged a swipe from Nico.

Annabeth shook her head, rubbing her ribs protectively. “I can assure you I am not here to steal anyone’s boyfriend.”

“Will is not my boyfriend!” Nico protested.

“Yet.” Leo muttered.

“Then how did you know who we were talking about?” Percy couldn’t help but join in the teasing. Nico really was too easy a target.

“I hate you all. There is going to be a special place in hell for you.”

“Nah you love us.” Leo shrugged. “But not as much as you love Will-“ That earned him a drying towel to the face. Everyone laughed. Percy watched Annabeth chuckling too. She looked like a large weight had been lifted off of her shoulders.

“For future reference Nico.” Percy laid a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t be a dick to people and then blame them for how they respond.”

“Ugh, whatever.” Nico shrugged him off.

Grover smiled and clapped his hands together. “Well, if we’ve gotten to the bottom of all that, can we get this place closed up so we can go home? I swear I have seen Juniper for a total of twenty minutes so far this week.”

“Roger that boss.” Leo saluted and continued to wash the dishes. Nico pulled the dish towel off of Leo’s shoulder and went to dry them, after handing Annabeth the mop. She took it from him and went out to the shop floor. Percy took in a deep breath.

“Can I borrow you a second?” he asked her. She looked a little alarmed but nodded.

“Am I okay to keep mopping or…?”

“Mop away.” He paused and cleared his throat. “I’m sorry I was harsh. I know you have got a lot going on, moving to a new town.”

She nodded and focused on the floor as she mopped.

“I-uh, just thought. I mean, just wondered, if you wanted to take your mind off of things- I’m sure Jason will say – There’s going to be a party down at the beach on Friday. So I just wondered if you would like to come as a chance meet some new people. It’ll mainly be us from the café plus a couple of people from college. Nothing too big or fancy... Just a chance to let our hair down before finals”

Percy could practically see the cogs turning in Annabeth’s head before she finally answered.

“Um,” she focused on the mop. “I’ll think about it, is that okay?”

“Of course! Everyone is super nice, I promise. I’ll let you get back to mopping.”

“Thanks Seaweed Brain.” She laughed. It was a pure, gentle sound that he couldn’t help but feel fuzzy from. Percy sighed in relief.

_Relief? _He thought. _Why am I relieved? _He shook off the thought and went to pick up his backpack.

“Hey,” He turned back round to face her. “You said you were dyslexic right?” Annabeth nodded. “You don’t happen to have any tips for studying? I swear these past two years I have gotten by on pure luck. Now it’s crunch time and I just can’t wrap my head around these notes.”

“You said that there is a lot of waiting time on a CW shift, right?” It was Percy’s turn to nod. “You free tomorrow night?”

“Well I’m studying but-“

“Take your notes and study here. I’ll show you all my best strats.” Annabeth looked more pumped for studying than any person had a right to.

“Yes ma’am!” Percy saluted and Annabeth laughed, threatening not to help if he was going to tease her. Percy said he wouldn’t dream of it and then left her to get on with working.

Percy said a quick goodbye to his friends and went home determined to memorise the notes from today. If Annabeth had agreed to help him study, he didn’t want her to think she would be starting from zero. He kicked himself when he realised he had forgotten to ask about Estelle’s project. He would have to ask tomorrow, not wanting to wear out Annabeth’s kindness, or favour.

Arriving home, Percy expected what had become the usual ritual. He called out a hello to Jason not expecting a response, dumping his backpack on the kitchen counter and going to the fridge to get a soda. The boy was practically living with Piper at this point. He wanted to joke that Jason should save himself some money and just move in with her, but he also didn’t want to risk Jason actually moving.

“Hey bud!” Jason shouted through from his room. Percy nearly dropped his can and opened Jason’s door wearing an exaggerated shocked expression.

“You’re here!”

“Yeah, these finals aren’t going to study for themselves. I have no clue how Piper is working her internship on top of exams.”

“Because she is a goddess no human can appreciate?”

“How did you know!”

“Because that’s what you said last time.” The pair laughed. “Man, I wish I had your work ethic.” Percy scratched his head “I just can’t seem to take anything in. Luckily your pal slash my new hero has agreed to help me study tomorrow.”

Jason’s smile fell a little bit. Percy shot him a confused look and he took a second before responding.

“Percy, you are a good friend, so please don’t take this the wrong way.”

“…Okay?”

“Be careful with Annabeth. She’s not had it easy and right now she’s going through a really tough break up.”

“Right.” Percy instinctively took a step back. “I’m not sure what that has to do with her helping me study though.”

“Look. She hurting in a way that I don’t understand and if you were to do something that added to that hurt… that would change us. Because she isn’t just my friend, she’s my family.”

“Jason, are you trying to accuse me of something?” Percy felt the tension in his shoulders build up. “Because Annabeth and I are friends. At least I think we are friends. I want to be her friend. I have no intention of hurting her.” He sighed, it wasn’t anger in his voice. “Do you think I want to make a habit out of hurting people or something?”

“No, of course not.” Jason shook his head. “Sorry bud. I didn’t think. I’m being overprotective again. Forget I said anything. She’d be lucky to have I friend like you. I know I am.”

“Sure.” Percy nodded before adding. “I know her well enough to know she would kick your ass if she heard that, so I’ll let it go.”

“Damn right she would,” he chuckled. “She’s a fighter, Annabeth Chase, always has been.”

Jason apologised again and Percy left him to study.

In the past four days Jason still hadn’t shaken off the tense energy that had surrounded that voice message. Percy knew it was none of his business but couldn’t help but wonder what had gotten them all so riled up. Even with everything - her erratic moods, this distance she had begun putting up with the café crew, her strange distance – Percy had begun to care about Annabeth.

The next few frustrating hours were occupied by trying to memorise the scratchings from the last four weeks of ‘Marine Ecology and Ecosystems’. It had not been very productive. The ten-hour ocean noise video that had been his soundtrack for the evening was on hour four and he had little to show for that time. In fact it was so calm that he jumped when his phone buzzed. Picking it up, he felt a massive grin cross his face when the lock screen revealed:

**1 New Message: Wise Girl**

**Received 19:54: Hey  
Received 19:54: How’s it going?**

Percy pulled the charging cable out and moved from his desk to sitting on his windowsill. It was nearly eight but the May sun was still hanging on by a thread.

**Sent 19:55: I hate finals.**

**Received 19:55: That good huh?**

He opened the window so that he could dangle his legs onto the balconette. The view from the apartment was stunning. It looked out across a sea of buildings right up to the ocean. The streetlights illuminated the walkway along the beach front, already dark enough as the sun set on the other side. Percy’s fingers tapped out his response.

**Sent 19:57: Since coming home from CC I have learned four new facts about ecosystems, joined a twitter debate on octopuses vs octopi, started to make an origami swan, squished my swan, felt extreme guilt about wasting paper then made and ate the world’s slimiest mac and cheese.**

**Received 19:58: HAHAHA! This is going to be harder than I thought…**

Percy could picture her laughing at him. The way she threw her head back, making her ponytail bounce. He looked to the crumpled-up swan on his desk, making him laugh too.

**Sent 19:58: No take backsies!**

**Received 19:59: You are lucky you looked so desperate with your head on that table.**

**Sent 19:59: Never been so happy to be called desperate.**

**Received 20:01:** **Given it some thought.**

**Received 20:01: I’ll come to your party. You can tell me the details tomorrow.**

Percy felt a flutter in his chest. That sense of relief was back.

**Sent 20:01: Great! Will see you at 6.30. **

**Sent 20:01: I’ll be the guy looking very confused by his textbook.**

**Received 20:02: Well I look forward to seeing if you live up to the name, Seaweed Brain.**

**Sent 20:02: Likewise Wise Girl**

**Sent 20:02: Night :)**

Percy stood up from his window seat and went to plug in phone back in. However, his happiness at what Annabeth had said was tinged with worry. Would something like this upset Jason? Is this why he hadn’t invited her to the beach party? It had seemed like an awfully cold shot for Jason to make. Especially now. He shouldn’t worry, he reasoned. He would see her tomorrow, and any misconceptions would be cleared up.

Trying not to overthink, Percy sat back down at his desk, closed his eyes in an attempt to lose himself in the ’10 HOUR OCEAN WAVES’ soundtrack playing in the background.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the lovely comments and kudos! I am so sorry this chapter took so long to post, work has been very hectic and I'm in the process of moving flats so writing kind of had to take a back seat. I'm very excited by where this story is moving, hope you are all enjoying the ride!


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